Anatomy of a Successful Fan Page

I have been on Facebook for over 3 years, and I have never seen a Facebook Fan Page like this. Created on 2/3/10 by the most awesome people on the planet - a fan page with a crappy image of a Pickle managed to trump the fan page of one of Canada's most successful bands with over 30 million albums sold and is number two behind the Beatles for the best selling foreign act of the 2000s.

A jpeg of a pickle folks. Yes, I'm talking about Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickelback?

There was no contest, no big giveaway, and limited interaction from the page admin. So why was this campaign so successful? Do people really hate the band Nickelback that much?

Let's look at a few key factors ...

1) Bandwagon Effect

Facebook news feed is fantastic! When a Facebook user fans a page, it posts not only on their own profile, but is fed into all their friends news feed. That is in fact how I even became aware of it. By seeing it over and over in my news feed, I had to know what all the fuss was about. FANTASTIC viral marketing!! It took me about 5 times to see it before I clicked, but once I did, I was hooked. By staying focused on their end goal, they kept the momentum up for the entire campaign which was consistently fed in user's news feed announcing dominance on countless radar screens.

2) Sticky Name

Can This Pickle Get More Fans Than Nickleback? It was such a catchy, creative name! It not only stuck in your head, but made you laugh at the same time at the preposterous nature of the community. Fans of the page didn't care that they spelled the band's name wrong - it almost made it MORE endearing!

3) David vs. Goliath

The pickle went toe to toe with a band that has been panned in rock as being too vanilla, and frankly, too fugly. However, I actually would consider myself a fan of the band, but like most Facebook users, we dig David more than Goliath. It had so much less to do with a pickle and even Nickelback, and more to do with taking a stand against the man.

4) Focus on the end goal, not the "how"

From day one they stuck to the true organic nature of a successful social media campaign - simplicity. They very literally just wanted to see if this pickle could get more fans than the band Nickelback? That's it! They weren't trying to sell you anything, push any sites ... etc! Which honestly inspired me to want to tell people about it. Had they said, oh yeah fan us and then buy all this crap we think you need, I would have moved on and never thought twice.

4) CREATIVITY!!!

It was something different. Sure, we've seen weird, random fan pages in the past ... but this one just stuck to the mission, and did something so very outside of the box. I have since seen hundreds of "can this *insert random food item* get more fans than *this fantastically awesome band.* Guys, move on ... we've seen this before! You can't copy and paste a successful social media campaign. It just doesn't happen. You want to focus on what worked for a certain party's campaign, but plug and play with how you can utilize that for your own promotion, or product.

This is an advertiser's dream!!! We're at the marketing drawing board for the first time in decades. It's a complete marketing paradigm shift. Traditionally when we watch TV, we zone out. We were very passive consumers, taking things at face value because this is what we were told is great while in a zombie like state. How many times have you bought something you saw on TV, got it and been like WTF?! Think there might be a reason?

You had someone special, inside this box sitting in your living room telling you this is the greatest thing since sliced bread and you have to have it. They had this power, this allure, this seductive quality that made you want whatever they had. It was giving kids candy! Now, the internet is dominated by user generated content and the people are reclaiming their power. Anyone can broadcast! Anyone can get a message out! So why should you listen to one person over another? Because honesty shines through in any medium. People are attracted to it, and want to help and promote it because it is deep in our DNA.

Social media consumers will buy, but they don't want to be sold to. Keep it simple stupid. When we're online, our brains are moving at a rapid pace; the polar opposite of zoning out, we're plugged in! What once worked in traditional advertising will absolutely not translate to the online medium because our psychological state is so drastically different. The consumer has an opinion, knows it, and will share it with ALL their friends in real time.

Think about the pickle for your next campaign ... a few people is all it took to make a VERY big splash! They have since inspired shirts, an entry in UrbanDictionary, and who knows what else!!! Pickle, I salute you!!!!

And PS. It's not the fan page that is now spamming ... those are the "social media ninjas" trying to capitalize on a ship that has already sailed. Don't hate the ninja. Hate the Dojo.