Harry Potter countdown drives Facebook frenzy

On July 7, the last installment of the
Harry Potter films premiered in London, seven days ahead of its general release in most countries. In the final week before the film becomes available, Facebook fans are being worked up into a frenzy by a series of revealing wall posts that are attracting nearly 100,000 new fans per  day. 

Ahead of the film's general release on July 15, the Harry Potter Facebook page is posting a series of film images, quotes from stars and video releases to build the buzz surrounding the film to fever pitch.

As of 9:00 GMT July 8, the latest post on the Facebook wall, a 32-second trailer, had attracted over 40,000 "likes" and 3,000 comments in seven hours after being posted.

Data from social media monitoring site Famecount shows that over the week ending July 8 the Harry Potter Facebook page attracted over 561,000 fans, over 97,000 of which became fans in the 24-hour period from July 7-8.  This translates into a weekly growth rate of 2.03 percent, compared to the average 0.69 percent growth of all Facebook pages.

Other Facebook pages with a significant increase in new fans over the past seven days include Levi's, which is beginning to recommend jeans to users based on what others have "liked," and Argentinean footballer Leo Messi, who recently played for his country in the COPA America.  

As of July 8, the top five Facebook pages with the largest increase in number of fans this week, according to Famecount, are:

01.   Levi's (+1,506,254 fans)
02.   Leo Messi (+1,104,962 fans)
03.   Harry Potter (+561,320 fans)
04.   Katy Perry (+540,113 fans)
05.   Facebook (+514,322 fans)