How much would you pay for million subscribed fans? How much time would you invest to build such a huge audience? Sometimes all it takes is a few minutes — just set up the right execution with some real insight.

The “Mom, mom, mommy, ma, mom, mom, ma, ma, mommy, mommy… WHAT!!… hi! (endquote sic) Facebook fan page has crossed 5 million fans, with no content whatsoever; it’s powered solely by the social currency traded amongst friends as they fan this page with a nudge and a wink.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mom-mom-mommy-ma-mom-mom-ma-ma-mommy-mommy-WHAT-hi/231423647287

It’s hard to describe the insight this fan page creator has leveraged – only a parent can fully understand the experience of moving from ceiling-clawing annoyance to cheek-squeezing adoration as their child vies for their attention…

Now, the page creator sits on a gold mine of news feed access… which begs the question, should brands change the topic?

If the topic of conversation always revolves around the brand, few fan pages could possibly achieve this level of penetration. But, if the strategy starts with the goal of creating social currency first, this achievement quite obviously seems more attainable.

Am I suggesting that branding this fan page would have had the same results, or that these fans would appreciate some mom-targetted messaging suddenly in their newsfeeds? Maybe not. But, if we started with the idea of developing social currency first (instead of brand or campaign messaging), why wouldn’t we continue that?

Say, for example, that this page was created by a brand employee/advocate for a Mom Brand X. The brand or agency could ask “Now, what do we sell them?” But better yet, they could ask “Now, what else do we give them?” What discount, access, tool or reward could the brand offer these fans exclusively – Thanking them for being great parents? What if the brand just started talking to these parents, to find out how they could better their lives?

And that’s the real conversation shift: Instead of “What can we sell them,” let’s ask, “What gifts could we give?”

Craig Ritchie

@craigritchie