No one knows for sure what an online fan is worth; lacking any academic research we have to look to the field for answers. Vitrue is one of my favorite sources for information about social impact of brands. I found out for example today that despite the fact that our local football team FC Twente here in Enschede became yesterday (for the first time in its history) the champion of the Dutch league, the big - till the last moment rival - Ajax is still more "social" brand than FC Twente. (do the test yourself in the Vitrue page if you want).
In any case a new post in Vitrue's blog informs us that a Facebook fan is $ 3.60 worth in earned media annually. In simple words if your company Facebook page has 1 million fans you earn $ 3.6 million per year in media cost. Interesting subject for discussion and certainly worth some scholarly research.
ps. today we were advised to leave the office (which is opposite the FC Twente stadium) early to avoid run over by the enthusiastic club fans who came to celebrate the victory. Amazing but 70.000 people came there.
Congratulations to FC Twente! Enschede has now next to the second Dutch beer brand the first football team of the country
