PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Karen Nelson-Field
AU  - Erica Riebe
AU  - Byron Sharp
TI  - What's Not to “Like?”
AID  - 10.2501/JAR-52-2-262-269
DP  - 2012 Jun 01
TA  - Journal of Advertising Research
PG  - 262--269
VI  - 52
IP  - 2
4099  - http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/52/2/262.short
4100  - http://www.journalofadvertisingresearch.com/content/52/2/262.full
SO  - J Advert Res2012 Jun 01; 52
AB  - A marketer with a Facebook Fan base has at least some ability to advertise to that audience. What quality of reach, however, does this sort of “earned media” deliver? The landmark discovery by Andrew Ehrenberg of the negative binomial distribution (NBD) implies that the most effective advertising requires media that reach across both heavy and light buyers of the brand. This article investigates the buying concentration of the Facebook Fan base of two different brands (both Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) categories) and compares it to the brands' actual buying bases. The buyer base of each of the brands is distributed in the typical NBD, whereas the Fan base delivered by Facebook is skewed in an opposite pattern—skewed toward the heaviest of the brands' buyers—making the quality of Facebook's reach appear rather unappealing.