There are tons of companies that had barely dipped a toe in the advertising waters (or, worse still, companies that did so poorly), at least until the advent of social media. Now, no more: it's an essential part of any comms strategy.
You could say a corporation is essentially required to do so in today's age, or else shareholders could quickly lose the narrative in the face of fans and customers. It's unheard of to look into a company and not find data about it on LinkedIn, Microsoft's ($MSFT) social networking site for professionals, for example.
We looked into global microblogging service Twitter ($TWTR), online juggernaut of destroying democracy and self-esteem Facebook ($FB), and its photo-sharing baby Instagram, to find out what companies are the biggest on each platform.
|
Name |
LinkedIn Followers |
Employee Count |
|---|---|---|
|
|
14.31 million |
179.55 thousand |
|
Amazon |
11.06 million |
336.82 thousand |
|
|
10.22 million |
19.37 thousand |
|
Microsoft |
9.36 million |
171.36 thousand |
|
Apple |
8.95 million |
183.60 thousand |
|
Unilever |
8.26 million |
107.02 thousand |
|
Nestle |
8.12 million |
147.20 thousand |
|
Business Insider |
7.71 million |
3.23 thousand |
|
IBM |
7.56 million | 502.13 thousand |
|
The Wall Street Journal |
6.67 million | 7.05 thousand |
|
|
5.18 million | 57.36 thousand |
|
Tesla |
4.98 million | 29.29 thousand |
First up is the list of the most followed companies on LinkedIn, the place where we all go when "between jobs." You can see the biggest companies in terms of employee count are the most closely tracked, like IBM ($IBM), Unilever ($UN), and Nestle ($VTX:NESN). And, what will be a reoccurring note in this article, the four horsemen of the financial apocalypse are all in the millions of followers: Facebook, Apple ($AAPL), Amazon, and Google ($GOOG). Otherwise known as FAANG. It turns out people really want to work at those companies.
Bonus shout out to Microsoft for double-dipping in the top five with itself and LinkedIn. Smart move there, Microsoft.
|
Name |
Facebook Likes |
Talking About Count |
|---|---|---|
|
YouTube |
84.05 million |
350.15 thousand |
|
McDonald's |
79.83 million |
556 |
|
Nat Geo TV |
63.64 million |
14.36 thousand |
|
WWE |
39.55 million |
1.49 million |
|
Starbucks |
36.84 million |
113.25 thousand |
|
L'Oreal Paris |
35.53 million |
623 |
|
Maybelline New York |
35.04 million |
5.26 thousand |
|
VW |
34.12 million |
94.89 thousand |
|
Marvel |
32.94 million | 29.48 thousand |
|
Pizza Hut |
31.88 million | 921 |
|
Food Network |
31.86 million | 267.25 thousand |
|
Victoria's Secret |
29.55 million | 130.35 thousand |
| Amazon | 29.31 million | 143.44 thousand |
One wonders if it's tough to digest, around Facebook, that the number-one brand on their platform is Google's YouTube.
Here we find the usual suspects (YouTube/Google, Amazon, Marvel/Disney, etc.) but also some companies that don't appear anywhere else on this list. We figure when everyone first started using Facebook, we all just naturally clicked "like" on the things we all love, namely food (Pizza Hut, McDonald's, Starbucks), entertainment (WWE, Nat Geo, Food Network), and sex appeal (L'Oreal, Maybelline, Victoria's Secret).
|
Name |
Twitter Followers |
Number of Tweets |
|---|---|---|
|
YouTube |
72.13 million |
24.32 thousand |
|
|
56.86 million |
12.53 thousand |
|
New York Times |
44.65 million |
380.71 thousand |
|
ESPN |
34.60 million |
197.55 thousand |
|
National Geographic |
23.56 million |
52.65 thousand |
|
|
21.65 million |
103.96 thousand |
|
Manchester United |
20.74 million |
56.66 thousand |
|
PlayStation |
17.46 million |
32.55 thousand |
|
The Wall Street Journal |
17.09 million | 294.42 thousand |
|
Xbox |
13.69 million | 254.98 thousand |
|
|
13.50 million | 13.30 thousand |
Again, the members of the popular investor acronym FAANG appear, this time with Twitter ($TWTR) itself thrown into the mix. There are also more entertainment geared accounts, as well as hard news, which concise tweets are best for. Quick blasts and blurbs of news or videos are phenomenal for ESPN, the NY Times, WSJ, and both console makers, Sony ($SNE) and Microsoft.
|
Name |
Instagram Followers |
Number of posts |
|---|---|---|
|
Nike |
96.08 million |
763 |
|
Victoria's Secret |
68.66 million |
401 |
|
Louis Vuitton |
35.83 million |
3.92 thousand |
|
Dior |
28.79 million |
6.06 thousand |
|
Adidas |
24.97 million |
755 |
|
BMW |
24.40 million |
6.24 thousand |
|
Mercedes Benz |
24.25 million |
13.23 thousand |
|
YouTube |
22.88 million |
1.93 thousand |
|
Prada |
22.12 million |
5.24 thousand |
|
Disney |
22.07 million |
4.66 thousand |
|
Apple |
20.91 million |
576 |
|
Calvin Klein |
20.01 million |
5.39 thousand |
|
Starbucks |
18.47 million |
1.91 thousand |
Finally, we have Instagram, the hippest and most youthful of the social media platforms. That's if the kids still use it, which maybe they're onto TikTok or Snapchat or something else, we can't keep up. The most visually interesting brands (fashion, clothing, makeup, and food) make their debuts on a list.
There are a lot of interesting companies who have millions of followers we should mention too: WWE, Sephora, Starbucks, Vans, UFC, Go Pro, Google, Urban Outfitters, Hollister Co., Adobe Photoshop, Abercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle, Whole Foods, Lululemon, DKNY, Microsoft, Amazon, Burberry, Michael Kors, ESPN, Fendi, Tommy Hilfiger, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Foot Locker, Puma, Marc Jacobs, and Under Armour.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.