Economist hits 1 million Facebook fans

The Economist has reached the milestone of 1 million fans on Facebook, reports T.J. Raphael of Folio magazine.

Raphael writes, “Nick Blunden, global publisher of digital editions for The Economist, says the print brand’s status has translated well to the social Web.

“The number is interesting — The Economist has a global circulation of 1.5 million, which includes print and digital figures, according to an Audit Bureau of Circulations July-December 2011 report. While the number of online fans could surpass that of actual circulation, The Economist is still coming out ahead of its competition: TIME  has just over 489,000 fans; The Wall Street Journal has just over 471,000 fans; The Atlantic with just over 91,000, and Bloomberg Businessweek with just over 47,500.

“‘We have focused, primarily, on the best ways and the most engaging ways to put content into social media and primarily Facebook,’ says Blunden. ‘Our view is that The Economist has always been a very social brand and had a great deal of social currency, even long before social media existed. People used to wander around with a copy of The Economist under their arm to signify they were interested in the world. Now, in the social media world, if you want to associate yourself with The Economist and show you’re interested in the world, you share our content on Facebook and Twitter. What Facebook has allowed us to do is unlock the inherent social value of our content.’

“Blunden says the best way for his brand to post content on Facebook is through timing and targeted editorial choices instead of taking content and posting it online as and when it becomes available.”

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