Check out last week’s top 10 over-performing Facebook posts from the 2016 presidential campaigns! The data is via our friends at CrowdTangle, and remember that these aren’t the top-performing posts in ABSOLUTE terms, since that would almost always be dominated by the pages with the biggest followings. Instead, these are posts that beat the average for that particular page — posts that reset the bar for success for that campaign on Facebook. If you like this list, check our our weekly Top Ten Facebook Advocacy Posts, also compiled with CrowdTangle data.
A special note to our readers-via-email: be sure to click through to the online version of this article to see the embedded posts. It’s well worth your time.
1. Rand Paul (46.5x)
Washington has an addiction. They spend more than they have! I have a revolutionary idea. Instead of running up debt,…
Posted by Rand Paul on Thursday, October 8, 2015
2. Rand Paul (37.1x)
Great article from Washington Post on civilians with guns stopping mass shootings.
Posted by Rand Paul on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
3. Ted Cruz (15.8x)
As Texas Solicitor General, I had the great honor of successfully defending the #TenCommandments monument that still…
Posted by Ted Cruz on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
4. Carly Fiorina (15.5x)
Carly is ready to beat Hillary! A new poll has Carly beating Hillary by 14 points in Iowa — a key swing state.
Posted by Carly Fiorina on Monday, October 5, 2015
5. Ted Cruz (7.7x)
The obligation to follow federal law doesn’t go away simply because we have a lawless president who refuses to acknowledge or follow federal law.
Posted by Ted Cruz on Thursday, October 8, 2015
6. Donald J. Trump (7.5x)
Just leaving Las Vegas. Unbelievable crowd! Many Hispanics who love me and I love them!
Posted by Donald J. Trump on Thursday, October 8, 2015
7. Jim Webb (6.9x)
"I know what it is like to have my father deployed. I know what it was like to be deployed. But I never had it as hard as when I was a father and my son was deployed. " – Jim Webb
Posted by Jim Webb on Tuesday, October 6, 2015
8. Mike Huckabee (6.0x)
Posted by Mike Huckabee on Thursday, October 8, 2015
9. George E. Pataki (5.5x)
Hillary Clinton sent me her book yesterday suggesting I use it to review her "record of accomplishments." I told her…
Posted by George E. Pataki on Wednesday, October 7, 2015
10. Hillary Clinton (5.4x)
“Hi, I’m Hillary Rodham Clinton.”“Great name. I’m Val.”
Posted by Hillary Clinton on Sunday, October 4, 2015
Explanation of the Scoring
These posts don’t represent the most-viewed pieces of content on Facebook (since that would almost entirely end up being dominated by the same small handful of large-audience Pages over and over). Instead, we list the posts that performed the best (using shares as the primary metric) against the organization Page’s OWN average (hence the word “over-performing”). To build the list, we CrowdTangle’s tracking system, which generates an average rate of growth for Pages over time (with at least 50 data points before a Page is scored). So, the "x" numbers listed above specifically represent how many more multiples of shares each post received compared with what the Page’s posts normally get. Note that we set a minimum bar of total engagement of around 500 shares or so.
About CrowdTangle
CrowdTangle is a new tool that helps organizations easily keep track of what’s being shared on Facebook. Organizations can use it to find shareable content around their own issue area or to keep track of what affiliated Pages are posting on a regular basis. Launched in late January, the beta version of the tool is already being used by dozens of leading organizations across the country. If you want to see how it works, watch this short video: http://www.screenr.com/Iv1H
– cpd
White House photo by Daniel Schwen, via Wikimedia Commons.
