Official 'Twilight' Facebook Fan page reaches 5 million (and counting)

The Official Twilight Facebook Fan Page

The Official Twilight Facebook Fan page has just reached an incredible milestone: garnering its five millionth member.  
Few Facebook pages in the world have accumulated as many fans as this, and administrators Lauren Suero and Heidi Bennett have watched the page grow from its infant stage of just a few thousand.
"I started working on the Twilight Facebook page in April of 2008," said Lauren Suero, one of two women responsible for administrating what is now the official Facebook go-to fan page for the Twilight series film franchise. "We were at 18,000 people. It was a very small and intimate page."
Heidi Bennett, the partner administrator for the page, joined hands with Suero back in August of 2008, "about a week after I read the Saga. When I joined the page there were 20,000 fans."
Since Twilight hit theaters in November of 2008, though, the page's membership has steadily ballooned, and by the time The Twilight Saga: New Moon hit theaters in November, 2009, they had over four million.
As of today, the Official Twilight Facebook page is the estimated eleventh most popular in the Facebook world, bested only by Texas Hold'em Poker, Michael Jackson, Mafia Wars, Barack Obama, Vin Diesel, Facebook, Starbucks, Megan Fox, Lady Gaga, and Coca-Cola (thusly making Twilight the biggest Facebook following for a book, film, or book/film franchise). The page enjoys a distant lead even over the so-called "Largest Facebook Group Ever."
And Suero and Bennett, in running the page, had and continue to have a purpose for it.
When the page started, "I had just finished reading the series - up to Eclipse - and I needed an outlet to express my love for the series. The opportunity came about to become an admin and help bring the page to its fullest potential. I wanted to present a fansite that was designed for fans by fans, and completely rumor, paparazzi, and leak free," Suero explained.
"I believed in Lauren's mission of running a page that fans could have a voice but also keeping the cast members safe from the gossip mill. We strive to keep the cast members' lives private, we aren't out to exploit their daily lives. That is something that was and still is very important," Bennett continued.
Indeed, it remains such to this day.
The page has been so effective at effectuating these ladies' purpose that, in the spring of 2009, it was officially recognized as the Facebook fan page for the series by film studio, Summit Entertainment.
"I would say our biggest reason why this page is so successful is because of our networking with other Twilight sites, Summit Entertainment, Little Brown, but most of all our fans," said Suero. She has learned from the experience of operating the page "that caffeine and networking make the fandom go 'round. I've gone through countless Red Bulls and Starbucks runs just to keep up with writing articles, posting items, e-mails, and trying to keep up with our discussion boards."
All of these tasks, no doubt, are arduous. "My experience with Twilight Facebook has taught me patience," said Bennett of keeping up with everything.
As they've been running the page since before the release of the first of the Twilight series films, they've been around for the entirety of the film series, and, with the impending release of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse, it's not hard to imagine that the Official Twilight Facebook Fan page might become the most prominent on Facebook before it's all said and done. In 2009, The Twilight Saga: New Moon was revealed to be the among the top status trends on Facebook for the year, and the numbers for this page certainly reflect the popularity of the series . . . and the hard work and dedication of its administrative duo.