Thursday, 03 November 2011

Saab celebrates 100,000 Fans on Facebook

Saab today celebrated an online milestone, with 100,000 fans choosing to join the brand's Facebook page.

"This is a wonderful milestone for Saab. We have always had a significant online presence for a company of our size, with much of it being fan-driven. To reach over 100,000 fans on Facebook is further testimony as to how much our fans like to associate themselves with our company," said Knut Simonsson, Vice President Brand & Marketing at Saab Automobile.

Saab's Facebook page started as a fan-driven initiative. When Facebook opened its services to brands, a web-savvy Saab fan named Kroum Vassilev in Toronto, Canada, started a Saab Cars page. With occasional updates and simple organic growth, the page attracted over 13,000 fans on its own. Mr Vassilev contacted Saab Automobile AB in Sweden and offered to transfer the page to their ownership in October 2009.

Since then, the page has continued to grow, with fans from all over the world now getting updates from Saab and sharing their Saab photos and stories online.

“Our oldest Facebook friend is every bit as important as the most recent one," said Simonsson. “The Saab fans are very active. They are always busy, uploading and sharing images, telling stories, and even assisting one another with advice when necessary."

To celebrate this historic occasion, Saab fans from all over the world contributed over 1,200 photos through various social channels, which have been used to build a selection of mosaic images. These mosaics, featuring both historic and new Saab vehicles, are available for download by fans at the Saab Cars Official Flickr account.

Some fast Facebook facts:

The top 5 locations for Saab fans on Facebook are: Sweden, United States, Italy, United Kingdom and Finland.
The typical fan is male, and between 25 and 34 years of age.
76% of fans are male, 21% of fans are female, and we are still trying to identify the remaining 3%.
The single busiest day for new “Likes" was on the 23rd February 2011, with 7,384 fans joining the Saab Cars Facebook community that day.
A normal day sees a net increase of approximately 80 new fans

Saab´s Facebook page is part of a multi-channel social media strategy that includes the Inside Saab weblog, a dedicated Saab official channel on Youtube, the Saab Newsroom as well as accounts on Twitter and Flickr.

Facebook — http://www.facebook.com/saab
Inside Saab — http://inside.saab.com
Youtube — http://www.youtube.com/saabcarsofficial
Newsroom — http://newsroom.saab.com
Twitter — @inside_saab and @saabnewsroom
Flickr — http://www.flickr.com/photos/saabcarsofficial