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. Marco Rubio (11.1x)
Give a high five for 5 GOP debate WINS!
Posted by Marco Rubio on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
2. Lindsey Graham (10.1x)
Donald Trump is declaring war on the Muslim faith. What I’m trying to do is partner with Muslims. I will go to the capitals of the Arab world and enlist their support to destroy ISIL.
Posted by Lindsey Graham on Sunday, December 13, 2015
3. Rand Paul (8.1x)
"My goodness, what we want in a leader is someone with judgment," Paul said, "not someone who is so reckless as to stand…
Posted by Rand Paul on Wednesday, December 16, 2015
4. Rand Paul (8.0x)
Today is #BillofRightsDay. We must elect a President that will defend the entire Bill of Rights.
Posted by Rand Paul on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
5. Jeb Bush (7.8x)
Donald J. Trump is a chaos candidate, and he'd be a chaos president. #chaospresident
Posted by Jeb Bush on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
6. Chris Christie (7.4x)
Posted by Chris Christie on Wednesday, December 16, 2015
7. Hillary Clinton (6.3x)
The #GOPdebate made it clear: We cannot let Trump or any of the Republican candidates win the White House. Add your name if you agree.
Posted by Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, December 15, 2015
8. Bernie Sanders (6.2x)
Not too long ago, I announced my candidacy for President of the United States of America. Today, with your support and…
Posted by Bernie Sanders on Wednesday, December 16, 2015
9. Lindsey Graham (5.5x)
To all of our Muslim friends throughout the world like the king of Jordan and the president of Egypt, I am sorry. Donald Trump does not represent us.
Posted by Lindsey Graham on Wednesday, December 16, 2015
10. Hillary Clinton (5.4x)
Seven reasons the world is a better place because Hillary was secretary of state.
Posted by Hillary Clinton on Tuesday, December 15, 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.
