As Facebook creeps towards its 1 billionth user, the effectiveness of communications shops around the world and around the halls of government are being judged more and more by their Facebook page fan numbers -- otherwise known as their 'likability' for the number of Facebook 'likes' they accumulate over time.  While raw numbers of likes or fans, as they used to be called, can provide a high-level metric for evaluating the page's effectiveness, it's not the best determinant for success in marketing these pages and recruiting a greater following. Within the federal space, where agency sizes vary widely, growth rates are a far more useful metric for determining just how well public affairs shops are doing in recruiting a fan base on Facebook.

Included below are tables containing Facebook fan page likes and growth rates among the top performing federal agencies for the last 30 days, divided into three categories of agencies: large, medium, and small. There are a few explanations for rapid growth rates among Federal agencies on Facebook. The first and most likely culprit is a positive news cycle, which draws attention to the agency's good work and attracts citizens to connect with the agency on social media. Another cause of rapid growth on Facebook stems from good marketing and outreach. This may come in the form of social media optimization - which can be as simple as finally adding a Facebook button to the agency website - or from more active marketing and engagement efforts via the Facebook page, newsletters, text messages, and so forth. The third typical cause of rapid growth stems from fulfilling an information dearth, either in the wake of an event, such as a natural disaster, or in areas where more traditional media and communications are absent and mobile communication is king. In third world countries, this is often the case. 

Growth rates on platforms like Facebook provide a modicum of insight into the effectiveness of the public affairs shop or new media team running the program and cultivating an audience -- a task not to be underrated in its difficulty. Critics of using metrics like raw numbers of likes and growth rates argue that it's more about quality than quantity, and that new media specialists should value engagement levels of their users over such 'fast metrics.' The reality is, there is no single way to gauge social media success, as performance measures should be tied to programmatic goals. If the goal is to be engaging and encourage vibrant dialogue on your Facebook page, engagement would be a more appropriate measure. If however, the goal is to increase information dissemination, then the amount of users reached is a better metric to use.

The truth is that within government, Facebook is primarily used as a secondary communication tool to keep citizens informed. Likewise, most citizens want to consume information, not discuss it, and so traditional 'fast metrics' such as those below still serve an important litmus test into the effectiveness of the social media program. Those seeking more metrics and more information as to the driving forces of these growth rates would do well to click on the links below and explore each agency's unique media analysis.