RSMI shows brands on Facebook have reached huge new fan growth numbers in 3Q

On October 4th of this year, Facebook hit 1 billion active Facebook users. 

With that being said, implementing a strategic presence on Facebook can be extremely advantageous to restaurant industry brands if they know what they’re doing. With all of the social media platform’s changes over the past few years, Facebook hasn’t been the easiest medium for business purposes.

In the Restaurant Social Media Index’s (RSMI) most recent quarterly report, which is based on Facebook fan growth for restaurant industry brands in the third quarter, a lot of interesting data was revealed. In the third quarter of 2012, 49 restaurant industry brands are now reaching almost 200 million accumulative Facebook fans. Essentially, when you put that number into perspective, that’s 20 percent of active Facebook users.

In comparison to Twitter, however, Facebook seems to be slowing down. In terms of growth, eMarketer has reported that, while Facebook saw a 38.6 percent climb in 2010, the platform grew only 13.6 percent in 2011 and is expected to fall down to the single-digits this year at 6.6 percent. Twitter, on the other hand, is still gaining more momentum: In 2010, Twitter saw a 23.5 percent jump and a 31.9 percent increase in 2011. In 2012, Twitter growth is estimated to be at 20.7 percent. Facebook has a larger base, of course. Most analysts claim Facebook’s plateau to be an effect of having already hit 1 billion users, with not much more room to grow at this point in time.