Facebook Pages aren't a community. They're a fantastic platform for managing one-to-many conversations, but the numbers prove conclusively what common-sense tells us: Facebook Pages are a poor environment for many-to-many conversations.

1. Is a Facebook Page a Community? Mat Morrison
Starcom MediaVest Group
@mediaczar
25 November 2011
We tracked more than 4,500 posts and
comments from Etihad's Facebook Page
between 22 March and 18 November 2011.
We identified individual conversations
(including status updates, wall posts, photo
posts) and analysed them to find how many
responses they had, and from whom.
The outcome? Because the overwhelming
majority of Facebook conversations take
place in the newsfeed (and because only
posts by the Page Administrator can be
shown on Fans' newsfeeds) there is Conversations started
1,189 on Etihad.Airways' Wall
vanishingly little peer-to-peer conversation,
and Fan-initiated conversations receive
limited feedback from their peers.
Conversations started Conversations
by Page Admins
160 1,029 started by Fans
Comments on
3,266 775 conversations
started by Fans
Comments on
conversations started
by Page Admins
Follow-up
comments from 112
Page Admins
3,148
Follow-up comments
from Fans
Follow-up 86 Follow-up comments
294
comments from 395 from other Fans and
Page Admins Friends of Fans
1.8%
Organic Follow-up
Conversation comments from
between Fans the Conversation
Starter
60%
Fan-initiated
conversations with
no follow up
3.75%
Admin-initiated
conversations with
no follow up