I recently stumbled on something very curious. Nutella, the hazelnut-chocolate spread loved by children all over the world (though mostly in Europe) has over 3 million fans. That’s not the weird part, though. The weird part is that after filtering out all the user comments on the Nutella Facebook page, there’s only one comment by Nutella. In Turkish. From 2008.
As far as I could tell, Nutella has done absolutely nothing to promote their Facebook fan page. After a bit of Googling, I discovered that I’m not the only who’s noticed this oddity. It turns out that a fan started the page, and Ferrero, the company that owns the Nutella brand, has indeed done nothing to grow the Nutella Facebook page or guide it in anyway.
So why is this significant? There are thousands of brands on Facebook attempting a vast array of strategies to try to grow their social media presence online. Everything from advertisements to access to exclusive content and deals. And here’s Nutella, gaining one of the largest followings of any brand on Facebook without a bit of effort.
Their page is peppered with upbeat posts from users all over the world. Just in the last hour (as I write this, duh) there are posts in Italian, English, German, French, and Spanish all proclaiming their love of Nutella.
I think this underscores how difficult it is to create a community online. Marketers can guide a community along and use advertising to jumpstart it, but in the end, online communities are autonomous entities to some degree. This is of course a massive topic that deserves many more blog posts. It’s not so surprising that a community would organically form around Nutella. It’s a product that’s a) nostalgic for many people, b) fairly unique, c) very popular. Still it shows how hard some brands need to try to create a community, and how easy it is for other brands.
So does this mean social media marketers like myself should pack up our tweets and go home? If online communities come about organically, why bother hiring us? Well, first of all, most brands don’t have that nostalgic charm and need a guiding hand to help them grow. But here’s the important bit: Nutella’s massive fan base is worth very little if they don’t do anything with it! It’s great to have a place where fans can congregate and share their enthusiasm for a product, but there’s no engagement from the brand, no efforts to promote news … nothing. Even if you’re one of the lucky few that can build it, and watch them come, your fans are only as valuable as you make them.
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