Likely bunch: Best-performing Aussie brands on Facebook revealed

Online retailer and former Smart50 finalist Showpo has ranked as one of the best-performing Australian brands on Facebook, with a higher level of engagement on the social network than McDonald’s Australia and even Prime Minister Tony Abbott.

Showpo is one of the few non-media companies to come out on top in the engagement ranks in Online Circle’s Australian Facebook Performance Report for the second quarter of 2015.

While breakfast television shows Today and Sunrise top the list, and only media organisations appear in the top 10, Showpo has been ranked at number 23, one place ahead of McDonald’s Australia and three places ahead of the Prime Minister.

Showpo has also been ranked as the seventh best performing Facebook page in the department and online stores category.

Non-media and non-government Facebook pages are doing better in terms of the total number of fans, with wine brand Yellow Tail ranked in seventh place with 1.36 million likes and fitness brand Lorna Jane in 12th position with 1.09 million likes.

Pizza chain Domino’s is ranked 14th in the likes stakes with 992,000 fans, while fitness entrepreneur Michelle Bridges also makes the top 30 with 824,000 likes for her 12 Week Body Transformation program.

The Australian Facebook pages with the most likes are tourism website Australia.com with more than 6 million fans, followed by Bananas in Pyjamas with 2.6 million likers, music group The Veronicas with 2.3 million followers, and Sydney.com, with more than 2 million fans.

The Online Circle report used data from March to June this year, with 500 brands in 27 categories analysed.

Social media and communications expert Catriona Pollard told SmartCompany this morning the data highlights how willing Australian consumers are to like and engage with businesses on Facebook.

“Facebook is really essential,” Pollard says, adding that Australian businesses should not ignore the platform in favour of newer social networks such as Instagram.

“There are so many people logging onto Facebook every day.”

While Pollard says brands that use imagery well are gaining traction on Instagram, she believes Facebook is more effective for businesses that want to create communities around their brands.

“The brands they are liking are the ones they interact with on a daily basis … they’re saying ‘I want to get content from you’. It is then easy to promote and sell to those people,” Pollard says.

The top 10 best performing Facebook pages in the department and online stores category are:

1. Black Milk Clothing (694,004 fans)
2. Popcherry (687,465 fans)
3. Target Australia (568,792 fans)
4. The Iconic (544,299 fans)
5. Ozsale (522,884 fans)
6. CatchOfTheDay.com.au (511,737 fans)
7. Showpo (486,071 fans)
8. eBay.com.au (479,914 fans)
9. Big W (445,708 fans)
10. 10. Kmart Australia (399,642 fans)