Top 10 Social Media All Stars for 2013

Using hard numbers as the basis for social media influence, Expion finds Levi’s, Macy’s, Target, Victoria’s Secret and Walmart are among the top 10 social media all stars for the first quarter of 2013.

Measuring the impact of social media isn’t an exact science yet, but Expion and some new players in the marketing support arena are working hard to make this a reality. Expion, which offers tools and solutions to help retailers manage their brand’s social media presence, recently analyzed the impact of the top 50 apparel retailers on Facebook from January 1 to March 31, 2013. Total fans for each brand were tallied as well as company posts, fan comments, fan likes and fan shares.

One unique datapoint Expion used in the rankings was for posts in the Facebook top 100. This datapoint measures the multiplier effective that posts can have on social media platforms like Facebook.

Expion started by tracking 1,322 brand posts on Facebook pages between Jan. 1 and March 31 by the top 50 apparel retailers. Most had no impact beyond their posting.

However, some messages inspired fans to make comments, like them or share them with friends and family. These viral activities counted as extra points. The messages with the most points became the top 100 Facebook posts, which were then added to the raw number of fans, company posts, fan comments, fan likes and fan shares for a total score.

When all categories were added together the score created a unique ranking of apparel brands based on their Facebook prowess. Expion refers to this as the Retail Fan Action Index for Q1 2013. Here are the top 10 apparel retailers on the list:

1. Walmart
2. Victoria’s Secret
3. Burberry
4. Macy’s
5. H&M
6. Target
7. Adidas
8. Nike
9. Zara
10. Levi’s

In terms of total Facebook fans and fan comments, the top three are:

1. Walmart
2. Victoria’s Secret
3. Target

 
Top three for company posts are:

1. Walmart
2. Victoria’s Secret
3. Macy’s

 
Top three for fan likes are:

1. Walmart
2. Victoria’s Secret
3. Burberry

 
Top three for fan shares are:

1. Walmart
2. Victoria’s Secret
3. Burberry

 
Some interesting takeaways from the study include:

• Zara posted just 10 messages on its Facebook page in three months and Nike just 28. As a result neither had any in the top 100 Facebook posts.
• Walmart was the most active poster (413) and as a result 30 of its posts achieved viral status and scored in the top 100 Facebook posts.
• Victoria’s Secret posted about half as many messages as Walmart (220) but more became viral – 45.
• Burberry had the highest conversion rate – 12 posts made it into the top 100 Facebook postings out of 54 posts.
• Worst conversion rate was Adidas – zero messages made the top 100 Facebook postings out of 84 posts.

for more information about this list, the criteria used and solutions for managing social media effectiveness contact Expion by clicking here.