Industry Report:

July 26, 2011

QSRQuick Serve Restaurant Industry Facebook Pages Performance Analysis

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Report PeriodJune 24 to July 23, 2011(Except where noted otherwise)

Brands AnalyzedBurger King, Chic-fil-A, Jack in the Box, McDonald's, Subway, Taco Bell

Executive Summary5 takeaways from the Facebook page tactics of quick serve restaurants

1. As we found in the Airlines report (http://bit.ly/report-airlines) the brand with the highest posting volume also grew their fan count the fastestBurger King enjoyed over 2x fan growth increase than their nearest competitor.

• Posting volume can be an effective way to increase impact, irregardless of fan count or engagement ratesThis doesn't mean you should neglect quality. It just means dialing up the volume can be a good way to extend your reach assuming you continue to provide a quality experience.

• Discounts and special deals are a good way to drive fan page growthSurveys have shown fan interest in deals and special offers, and Burger King demonstrated it in a 4 day campaign during July 4th weekend.

• Fan growth can happen on moderate engagement rate activityBurger King has grown their fan base quickly with moderate engagement rates. They post frequently (56x in a month) and consistently, using volume to drive social media endorsements as well as decent engagement rates.

• Offer deals at times when other brands might be taking the day offBurger King maintained a consistent posting schedule across July 4th weekend, while many other brands pulled back their posting, and remarkably grew their fan page over 3% in 4 days.

Who's growing their fan base the fastest?

Burger King is showing more than 2x the fan growth rate of the nearest competitor, at almost 10% monthly growth. That's a very strong growth rate. 

How often do brands post in this industry?

Brands never posted more than 3x per day.

Within the industry, some brands fluctuate their posting considerably.

By comparison, Burger King's posting activity is much more consistent.

Also note their volume of activity well above the industry average.

What brand content types are used most and perform best?What content types are they posting? Broad range of content types from different brands. Note that Burger King is posting more balanced content types, and at significantly higher volume.

What content is performing the best? Jack in the Box shows exceptional response rates from status updates. This indicates a very loyal following. They also have the smallest community size, which makes high engagement rates easier to attain.

Burger King is getting good overall response from their broad range of content. Combined with their consistency, this indicates they're doing a lot of things right in terms of content, instead of just a few hits here and there.

What are the most engaging brand posts in the past month?

Jack in the Box's dominance in the list of 10 most engaging posts shows the power of their brand for commanding a loyal, engaged following. 

However, their community size and fan growth rates are both at the low end of the spectrum for these industry competitors. Jack's content strategy could be great for their most loyal fans, but they may need to consider a broader range of content to connect with a wider audience.

How posting volume can increase your brand's impact

While quality, or engagement rate, is one good measure of your posting impact, if your engagement rate is only half that of a competitor, but you post twice as much, you can end up with the same level of social media endorsements. That's similar to what we're seeing this month with Burger King and Jack in the Box.

What does Burger King's fan growth chart look like?

There is a distinct spike in fan growth during the July 1-4 period. Burger King grew their fan base by 3.38% during those 4 days. That's more growth than most of our brands got in the entire month: Definitely an area worth taking a look at. 

What was Burger King posting during that period?

Note the promotion of a single special offer during the July 4 holiday. It's both focused and consistent. Survey's indicate that special offers are the biggest reason people Like a brand on Facebook. This data certainly supports that.

How did their July 4 weekend posting compare to others?

While some brands took the holiday off or cut back on posting, we can see that Burger King maintained their presence with a consistent schedule and messaging program.

Dates: July 1 - 4, 2011

What are the overall most impacting posts in the past month?

It's easier for small communities to get a high engagement rate, but larger communities have a big advantage when it comes to overall impact. Jack in the Box, with less than 500,000 fans, is generating great engagement rates, but with maximum interactions per post of of under 2,000. 

Alternately, Taco Bell, with 7.2 million fans, may not get the same engagement rates, but the overall social media endorsements on their top post is more than 500% higher than Jack in the Box's top post. That's why so many marketers focus on building their fan count.

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That's just a sample of what Zuum can reveal about what works with Facebook marketing

ContactDoug SchumacherCo-FounderProduct Development and Marketingdoug@zuumsocial.com

Join us every week for a new industry report using Zuum to clarify what works for that industry on Facebook. Just register for Zuum to get access to the same reports we used for this analysis. We welcome any input from readers on what they find in the data.