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. Ted Cruz (16.0x)
A pre #GOPDebate prayer
Posted by Ted Cruz on Thursday, January 28, 2016
2. Dr. Ben Carson (13.5x)
#TBT to June 19, 2008 when I had the tremendous honor to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President George W. Bush. I was immensely humbled by this experience.
Posted by Dr. Ben Carson on Thursday, January 28, 2016
3. Marco Rubio (9.1x)
I am humbled to have the endorsements of The Des Moines Register and Sioux City Journal. Our momentum keeps growing in Iowa!
Posted by Marco Rubio on Tuesday, January 26, 2016
4. Marco Rubio (9.1x)
Thanks for your support tonight in the #GOPDebate. Now commit to vote or caucus in your state: rub.io/commit
Posted by Marco Rubio on Thursday, January 28, 2016
5. Rand Paul (7.9x)
Posted by Rand Paul on Wednesday, January 27, 2016
6. Rand Paul (7.7x)
Funny how this only seems to happen to one candidate…Coincidence?
Posted by Rand Paul on Sunday, January 24, 2016
7. Carly Fiorina (6.7x)
Carly Fiorina tells voters why Hillary Clinton cannot be President of the United States.
Posted by Carly Fiorina on Thursday, January 28, 2016
8. Mike Huckabee (5.5x)
Watch Gov. Huckabee meet with some of Hillary Clinton's voters ⬇️"I used to tell people one of the reasons I'm a…
Posted by Mike Huckabee on Monday, January 25, 2016
9. John Kasich (5.4x)
New Jersey's The Star-Ledger came up with a pretty telling side-by-side comparison of John Kasich and Chris Christie. #Kasich4Us
Posted by John Kasich on Monday, January 25, 2016
10. Martin O’Malley (5.2x)
Hold Strong. America is looking for a new leader. #DemTownHall
Posted by Martin O'Malley on Monday, January 25, 2016
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.
