On 27th February, Lidl reached the milestone of 10 million fans on Facebook as verified in the study "Lidl Now #1 European Food Retailer on Facebook" recently published by the social media monitoring agency Socialbakers.
Lidl began its international social media activities in September 2011 in 7 pilot countries (UK, Spain, Ireland, Holland, Croatia, Romania and Finland). Lidl Germany had already previously set up the company's first Facebook page.
Gradually the remaining countries became active too, and by April 2013 the final countries launched their pages. Today, Lidl has 26 Facebook pages and a fan community of 10.2 million followers. In the countries where it operates on Facebook, the average penetration rate is around 5.9%. This means that after approximately 2.5 years of being internationally present on Facebook, Lidl is the number one food retailer in Europe and number two worldwide.
However, Lidl does not just top the rankings list when it comes to the number of followers. The Socialbakers study also shows that Lidl is the European food retailer with the greatest number of interactions, and replies to the highest number of posts on Facebook. Socialbakers' complete evaluation will be made available via their blog on Wednesday 23rd April.
Lidl UK launched onto Facebook in March 2011 and quickly built up a loyal fan base. By January 2013, Lidl UK had 250,000 Facebook fans and by November 2013 this figure had risen to half a million fans. Today, Lidl UK has over 600,000 Facebook fans and a very impressive average response rate of 97%. Innovative Facebook activities being carried out in the country include apps and competitions such as the recent Easter Rally, where players were able to win £50 of Lidl vouchers.
