Who says Facebook pages are dead? If anything, the social capital of your customers has never been more valuable than it is today.
We analyzed the top 25 brands in the first 30 days of 2016 with our Facebook Fan Grader to see who is making the most of their Facebook fan base to drive engagement for their brand. Below, we break down the top 25 brands across five metrics of engagement, including the Average Influencer Index, which indicates how many engagements (in the form of clicks and likes) each brand’s micro-influencers are driving on average. Then, we give the 5 key takeaways that you can learn from the five brands with the most stellar Facebook engagement.
Fan Grader calculates a fan’s influence based on their ability to drive friends to engage with a brand’s organic Facebook posts. The report not only shows the average number of friends a fan engages, but also reveals the top 100 fans who are driving the most influence. The updated dashboard allows brands to benchmark against the competition, download reports for further analysis and contact influential fans directly.
Which of these brands are using tactics that could fuel your 2016 Facebook strategy? Scroll down to find out:
Always-On Fan Engagement
It’s no surprise that Starbucks reigns supreme – they manage their Facebook page like an extension of their coffeehouse. The brand responds to every single fan comment – whether a drink clarification or personal experience. Additionally, Starbucks’ constant engagement with fans within the comment threads serves to further encourage conversation between the Facebook fans; as a result, each branded post turns into a discussion thread not unlike a fan forum.


Video Content
With Facebook’s recent algorithm update favoring video content, the results speak for themselves: Coca-Cola has posted 19 video posts (vs. 3 image posts) on its page in the last 30 days – generating a combined 55K shares, further driving discoverability and engagement with hashtags like #TasteTheFeeling. Coca-Cola places a clear priority on creating well-made and engaging video content on its Facebook page, the subject of which can range from relevant, event themed pieces (like a NYFW spoof video) to sponsorship (like Marvel videos featuring the Hulk).
Frequency & Relevance
MTV may have an edge as an entertainment brand, but from the latest memes and viral content to celebrity news, only 2 out of every 10 posts are promoting owned content (Movie Awards, Teen Mom). MTV beats most brands by sheer volume by posting multiple times an hour. Aligning with Facebook’s current news trends & viral content offers the best chances of organically appearing in users’ news feeds and driving fan engagement. What’s more, they’ve mastered the art of the tease, offering up sneak-peek content that encourages the click that would lead the user out of Facebook and to MTV’s own news page for the full story.


All About Product
Samsung is a consumer tech brand and knows its audience, heavy on company image and product. Samsung alternates between videos and posts that creatively revolve around the latest product launch, usually including a hashtag and a release date countdown. Its latest launch, #TheNextGalaxy, has released 7 videos and 5 image posts over the last month to generate buzz for its new phone, alternating between customer narratives, product photos and video clips. Samsung’s compatibility with Oculus’ Gear VR (owned by Facebook) doesn’t hurt either.
Snackability
The NBA is crushing the Facebook game, leaving other U.S. sports associations in the dust with a fan base of 28 million and an Average Influencer Index of 35.39. Their strategy secret? All posted content on the NBA page is snackable: all of their videos are posted directly to Facebook, versus a linked post that redirects to another site (both the NFL and the MLB take the latter approach). The NBA page primarily posts game footage and fan photos, a double whammy of fan engagement that keeps users up to date with recent results and personalized moments from games. The content is easy to access, very engaging, and relatively brief- the ultimate trifecta of social media success.
