For many brands, building up a strong fan base on Facebook is becoming more important to their corporate development strategies as consumers from around the world flock to the website. In fact, the social media giant’s statistics page reports that more than 800 million people have set up Facebook accounts. Of these individuals, more than 75 percent are located outside of the U.S.

While there is no surefire way to get more fans on Facebook, organizations may have an interest in the results of a recent study by NM Incite, a Nielsen McKinsey company. According to a December 19, 2011 post on the business’ website, researchers looked into the reasons why users of the social media website add and remove friends.

To get a sense of people’s online behavior, NM Incite surveyed 1,865 social media users who were at least 18 years of age. Based on their findings, NM Incite put together an infographic that revealed 82 percent of participants add people on Facebook that they know in real life. Additionally, 60 percent of respondents friend those who are mutual friends, while 8 percent form connections due to business networks. Physical attractiveness and the need to increase friend count were two other factors that were cited by those polled.

Meanwhile, 55 percent of Facebook users are ready to remove friends once they start making offensive comments, according to NM Incite’s findings. A total of 41 percent of respondents delete individuals if they do not know them well enough, while 39 percent are willing to sever a connection if somebody tries to sell them something. Depressing comments, lack of interaction, political comments and constant profile updates were all possible reasons for removal.

This information may be of interest to brands that wish to increase their online presence for multiple reasons. For instance, if companies wish to gain social learning from their customers, they may never even have the opportunity if they turn off their fans. Businesses that are constantly pushing products or do not update their pages regularly could lose their appeal the same way individual users become candidates for deletion over time.

At the same time, NM Incite’s findings also revealed Facebook users’ level of engagement with brands. For instance, 66 percent of individuals seek out consumer feedback on products and services, 60 percent have an interest in learning about items and 58 percent are looking to receive coupons and other promotions. To companies’ advantage, 54 percent of survey participants use social media to leave positive feedback, while 51 percent post negative feedback.

According to NM Incite, women are more likely to provide positive feedback and look for promotions on Facebook. As a result, companies that appeal to female consumers may want to increase their social media presence.

NM Incite also found that 67 percent of social media users are online for entertainment, 47 percent are looking to play games and 35 percent want to follow celebrities. This information may be useful to brands that use gamification and celebrity endorsements to market their products and services.

Another way for brands understand what customers like to see in a brand that has joined Facebook is to look at a few social media success stories. For instance, Mashable highlighted companies that have performed well on the online platform in an October 3, 2011 article.

Oreo began its career on Facebook with a page that was very focused on its U.S. customers, according to the news source. However, the brand realized that around half of its fans were located in other countries and revamped its page to reflect the company’s global focus – an example of how social learning can help organizations realign their business strategies and see positive results.