Why are Other Brands More Popular than Yours on Social Media?

Posted on July 16, 2015

Why are some social media pages really successful while others are just mediocre? According to Newswhip, stories that were posted on PlayBuzz’s Facebook page were shared over 10 million times and posts that were made on BBC’s Twitter page were tweeted over 4.5 million times. Looking at these stats, there is a clear separation between the top pages on Facebook and Twitter and the pages that follow. What makes PlayBuzz and BBC’s posts so popular and shareable? What are they doing that sets them apart from other popular social media pages?

(Source: PlayBuzz Facebook Page)

PlayBuzz is an entertainment website. Literally, they whole objective of their Facebook page is to entertain people (it even says so in their title). Their page is full of mind-less quizzes that help you take your mind off of work and reality. Cause after all, you really want to know what kind of pet you would be if you were an animal. These quizzes are fun and engaging. People that take them want to share their results and because of this, end up sharing PlayBuzz’s post. It’s really the snowball effect on social media and people wanting a break from reality that makes PlayBuzz the most shareable page on Facebook. In addition to these sharable mind-less quizzes, there are a few feel-good stories that are sprinkled in that pulls at our heartstrings (think babies and puppies) that we read, love, and want to share with our friends. Facebook is designed for sharing stories and PlayBuzz really has a knack for creating shareable pieces of content.

(Source: BBC Twitter Page)

Twitter, however, is more of a news-sharing site than an entertainment site. The BBC’s Twitter page is full of both breaking and general news stories, with posts being made an average of ten to twelve times per day (many of these are retweets). One thing that sets the BBC’s twitter page apart from other top news organizations on Twitter is the huge variety of content that is posted on the pages. Unlike other news sites, the BBC seems to focus on a much larger demographic set than some of its competitors. You see everything from vines of whales jumping out of the water to pop culture photos and stories to breaking news to weather reports. The BBC also leverages associated channels such as @BBCweather, @BBCsport, and @BBCiPlayer to tweet and retweet. This way, they are reaching a larger audience. In my opinion, the large amount of sister Twitter pages that the BBC has greatly contributes to their ability to reach and engage with a large audience.

How can we take what the market leaders are doing and put these into practice for our brands? We can start by identifying what our audience likes to do when they are not at work. Even though the social media accounts that you manage may be very product and business related, we can’t forget that the people that we do business with still want to be entertained. They don’t want products to constantly be pushed at them. They want to have a little fun, read an interesting story and see some great photos. If we can make them related to our brand, even better! The point of social media is to be social and entertaining. If a brand can do that for its customers, they will be more successful on social media in the long run. Don’t forget that it’s ok to have posts that are not directly related to your brand. If your target audience is interested in those types of posts, it will serve your brand well.