FACEBOOK ZERO As the opportunity for organic reach has declined on Facebook, brands have become increasingly willing to pay to reach the platform’s audience instead. Simply put, this data demonstrated that the era of using social media as a free medium, which could be depended upon to inspire by word of mouth organically, was over, forever. The Earned in the triangle of Paid-Owned-Earned was about to undergo a major desertion of social media usage to the Paid. At the same time, our understanding of what actually constituted a fan improved. There had been a strong streak of wish fulfilment in the industry: brand owners want to believe that because people are saying positive things about your brand they are brand advocates. This is not necessarily the case. Certainly there is no shortage of liking or of followers. Eighty-four per cent of people across 11 markets said, when we asked, that they had “liked” or followed a brand, product or service. More than half had actually interacted with a brand – although in a salutary finding which punctures a lot of the rhetoric about social marketing, 79 per cent never received a response back. Around 6 out of 10 people seem to be “sharers”: they share their experiences of brands – both positive and negative – with others. Followers are not the real prize. That lies in finding the true promoters of a brand.