Television shows were the most talked about branded entities on Facebook in October indicating that social TV efforts have taken hold on the social network.

Collectively the top 20 TV show pages for programs aired on Australian screens commanded around 8.5 million fans, more than 4 million ahead of nearest rival – the snackfoods industry.

However, despite being the most talked about overall, TV show fans were not the most engaged – a measure of the number of fans actually talking about the page. Several industries succeeded in mobilising their fan bases to a greater extent than TV shows, with telecommunications page fans coming in as the most engaged, whether negative or positive.

Author of social media agency Online Circle’s ‘Australian Facebook Performance Report’, Lucio Ribeiro, was impressed with the traction the likes of Telstra and Vodafone generated around their social media customer service portals.

“I am impressed by the telecommunications industry, who led the way in this respect, recording an incredibly high engagement rate of 16.6% up from just 2% in July,” Ribeiro wrote in the report.

Second in class for engagement in October was grocery retailers with a rate of 9.8% followed by quick serve restaurants on 7.7% and electronics on 6.6%.

The report concedes though that brands with a high level of fans tend to have a lower level of engagement as it is difficult to activate large volumes of people on a regular basis.

Alcohol brands

Most liked: [yellow tail] – 631,799 fans
Most talked about: Jim Beam Australia – 14,519 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: ABSOLUT VODKA (Australia) – 14.7% engagement rate

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Electronics

Most liked: Xbox Australia – 285,249 fans
Most talked about: Xbox Australia – 29,000 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Motorola Australia – 36.5% engagement rate

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Grocery

Most liked: 7-Eleven Australia – 2352,769 fans
Most talked about: Coles – 58,463 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Coles and getwinesdirect.com – 26.8% engagement rate

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Banking and Financial

Most liked: Commonwealth Bank – 226,948 fans
Most talked about: NAB – 5745 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Citi Australia – 19.6% engagement rate

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FMCG – Snackfoods

Most liked: Pringles Australia – 1,078,537 fans
Most talked about: Pringles Australia – 69,234 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Maltesers Australia – 29.0% engagement rate

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Quick Serve Restaurants

Most liked: Domino’s Pizza Australia – 749,013 fans
Most talked about: McDonald’s Australia – 145,951 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: McDonald’s Australia – 32.2% engagement rate

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Automotive

Most liked: Holden – 329,328 fans
Most talked about: Audi Australia – 12,822 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Audi Australia – 43.4% engagement rate

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Telecommunications

Most liked: Voadafone Australia – 190,234 fans
Most talked about: Voadafone Australia – 61,988 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Voadafone Australia – 32.6% engagement rate

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TV Shows

Most liked: Bananas in Pyjamas – 190,234 fans
Most talked about: Official Big Brother Australia – 174,830 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Official Big Brother Australia – 41.1% engagement rate

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Retail – Departments stores

Most liked: CatchOfTheDay.com.au – 331,260 fans
Most talked about: BIG W – 29,815 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: Domayne Australia – 32.1% engagement rate

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Retail – Fashion

Most liked: Lorna Jane – 492,822 fans
Most talked about: Lorna Jane – 28,565 people talking about page
Most engaged audience: City Beach – 8.6% engagement rate

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The report analysed data captured automatically using Facebook APIs on September 17 and 26 and October 1, 8 and 15 2012. Averages of fan numbers and people talking about the brands across the days for selected brand pages were used to generate the statistics. The list of brands included is not exhaustive but intended to be “representative of those brands leading the way in each vertical”.