World AIDS Day Goes Viral In Facebook Status Updates

Today is [World AIDS Day][1], and Facebook users were posting on the topic roughly every two seconds at the time of this post. However, something seemed to be lacking.

The [World AIDS Day Facebook page][2] had a total of 57,435 likes at the time of this post -- not a terribly low number, but much lower than we expected.

Much more puzzling to us: The page's " [talking about this][3]" total was just 593, which seems awfully low given that the topic is showing up in so many status updates -- the rate could well exceed what we noted above since we have no way of counting shares limited to friends only. Ditto for all of the comments and likes on everyone else's posts.

Nonetheless, the posts we saw consisted mostly of users marking the event, and there were no attempts to commercially exploit the day. Links to the Facebook page or the [World AIDS Day website][4] were common, as were users noting that they had changed their main profile pictures to the red ribbon icon that marks the event.

Readers, why do you think the metrics on the World AIDS Day Facebook page are so low?

[![][5]][6]

[![][7]][8]
[![][9]][10]

[![][11]][12] [![][13]][14] [![][15]][16]

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[1]: http://www.allfacebook.com/lady-gaga-will-pause-her-facebook-posts-for-charity-2010-11 (Lady Gaga Will Pause Her Facebook Posts For Charity)
[2]: https://www.facebook.com/pages/World-AIDS-Day/5890902998 (World AIDS Day Facebook)
[3]: http://www.allfacebook.com/facebook-pages-talk-2011-10
[4]: http://aids.gov/world-aids-day/ (World AIDS Day)
[5]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/WorldAIDSDay.jpg (WorldAIDSDay)
[6]: http://www.allfacebook.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/WorldAIDSDay.jpg
[7]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WO1b4jNGEQ-WE6dcGzo1mA9RnyQ/0/di
[8]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WO1b4jNGEQ-WE6dcGzo1mA9RnyQ/0/da
[9]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WO1b4jNGEQ-WE6dcGzo1mA9RnyQ/1/di
[10]: http://feedads.g.doubleclick.net/~a/WO1b4jNGEQ-WE6dcGzo1mA9RnyQ/1/da
[11]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=pnQdOprp5To
[12]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=u8Ohpg7Bmc0:3eN5_7PRg1s:pnQdOprp5To
[13]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?d=qj6IDK7rITs
[14]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=u8Ohpg7Bmc0:3eN5_7PRg1s:qj6IDK7rITs
[15]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?i=u8Ohpg7Bmc0:3eN5_7PRg1s:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[16]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/allfacebook?a=u8Ohpg7Bmc0:3eN5_7PRg1s:gIN9vFwOqvQ
[17]: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/allfacebook/~4/u8Ohpg7Bmc0

URL: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/allfacebook/~3/u8Ohpg7Bmc0/facebook-viral-status-updates-2011-12