Since Timeline went public on fan pages in March, a few page metrics other than “Likes” are now available for public view.  Along with the number of “Likes”, we can also view the number of “People Talking About This” on each individual fan page. You can also view the most popular week of activity on the page, along with the city source and age group of the “Likes”.

A few weeks ago, we decided to add those metrics into the formula for our “How Social is Your DMO?” ranking scale.  As we were preparing the USA Q2-2012 rankings, we decided to spend a few extra minutes and compile a list of the 50 US states in order of Facebook engagement and release those this week. Click here for the list of the 50 US states official tourism fan page engagement percentage ranking, which was determined on Tuesday, May 1, 2012.

The Engagement percentage is measured by the total number of “People Talking About This” divided by the total number of “Likes.”  There were only three states that had an engagement percentage larger than 10% in the top 5. They were: 1) Texas at 28%; 2) South Dakota at 13% and 3) Maryland at 10%.   California, Connecticut and Kentucky rounded out the top 5 – all tied at 7% each.

A majority of the 50 state DMO’s – 36 of them – all fell within the 1% to 5% range.   And, of the top six states listed above, only Connecticut had more than 100K in total “Likes.”  Connecticut’s page has 100,588 “Likes” while Maryland, who ranked third in engagement, only had 6,458 “Likes”.  This is a great example that bigger is not always better.

We all know and understand that this measurement is a moving target and it can literally change hourly – based on a viral post or a successful ad campaign – but it is another interesting metric to watch and measure over time.  It would be very interesting to track this data on a weekly basis for a year to get a more accurate profile of overall Facebook engagement for a destination fan page.