Question

John's band's Facebook page has 17,000 likes. If each of his fans has friends that number 15 percent of the likes that John has, how many people can John's fan page potentially reach if all his fans share his page? (Do not include John's direct fans.)

Answer 1

There could be 42,483,000 potential page fans that John could have excluding his direct fans.
Solution:
1 fan = 17,000 x 15% = 2,550
2,550 x 17000 direct fans = 42,500,000
42,500,000 - 17000 direct fans = 42,483,000

Answer 2

Answer: There are 43333000 people that can like his page if all his fans share his page.

Explanation:

Since we have given that

Number of likes John's band's page has = 17000

Number of friends his fans has = 15% of his likes

which is given by

$\frac{15}{100}\times 17000=2550$

Now, number of people John's fan page potentially reach if all his fans share his page is given by

$17000\times 2550=43350000$

Number of people will like his page excluding his direct fans is given by

$43350000-17000=43333000$

(We subtract 17000 from 43350000 because in our question we have to exclude the direct fans of him and 17000 likes are liked by his direct fans only.)

Hence, there are 43333000 people that can like his page if all his fans share his page.