The World's Most Influential Media on Social Networks

THE WORLD’S MOST INFLUENTIAL MEDIA ON SOCIAL NETWORKS

JULY 2017 The most influential media

Over half the users of social networks use platforms such as Facebook or Twitter to keep up to date with current affairs (1), some on a recurring basis. The media is not blind to this trend, so more and more effort is being put into the digital realm.

Which is why, for this edition of SocialScene, we wanted to know which media have the most followers on social media. Is there a preferred type of news producer on the Internet? Has the way we consume news changed?

METHODOLOGY

For the purpose of this report, the official channels belonging to media on the three main social networks in the western world (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) were analyzed.

For media with several profiles on Twitter, the sum of people following the most significant accounts was used. This report has not taken into account the official profiles of communications groups that are not media outlets per-se, as well as specific radio or television programs and/or their hosts.

(1) Pew Research Center with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation Uncle Sam speaks to the whole world

1 2 3 118M 107M 72M

Absolute rulers. In both the Top 10, and the Top 100 Conversely, it is rather curious to take a look at the rankings. This is the only possible way to describe the Top of the ranking, since the number one position is presence of the USA in terms of media with the most not held by a TV station, nor a powerful current affairs followers on social networks. Just one Chinese and newspaper, nope… It is The National Geographic, the one British media featured in the Top 10 alongside leading science and nature magazine. With 114 their American counterparts. million followers, it has over 12 times more followers than the circulation of the print magazine . So, it seems that not only do American brands and consumer habits rule the world; apparently, their media outlets have found the perfect vehicle for global expansion too.

Ranking Top 10 followers

1 National Geographic Magazine 118.212.255

2 BBC News 107.463.876

3 MTV 72.301.875

4 CNN 67.216.197

5 National Geographic TV 64.027.999

6 ESPN 59.494.975

7 The New York Times 55.019.949

8 CGTN 54.122.193

9 Discovery 51.065.806

10 HISTORY 45.793.906 The world map of information

Top 100 media distributed per region

Europe

USA Middle east Asia - Africa Rest of America

LEADING COUNTRIES:

USA BRAZIL U.K, FRANCE E.A.U., EGYPT, QATAR, SAUDI ARABIA CHINA, INDIA, PAKISTAN

Based on origin, three regions divvy up the pie in terms of the media and their followers on social networks: The USA (who, as we saw above, heads up the ranking), Asia and the Middle East, with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Egypt in the starring roles.

Bearing in mind that to draw up this Top 100 ranking we only took western social networks (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram) into account, it’s rather surprising that 4 of the 6 Chinese media in this ranking feature in the 25 most followed. It would make sense to think that, if we had also considered followers on Weibo or Renren, China could have been head to head with the USA.

On the other hand, while 5 countries are vying for the Top 25 spots for media with the most followers, whole continents, such as Europe or non-US-America, only get 10 media outlets each in the Top 100 ranking. In fact, only one European media outlet is among the first 50, with the BBC’s second place, and only Brazilian Rede Globo just makes it onto the Top 25 leader board.

The picture only changes slightly if you add the “new digital media” to the mix, though the US is still the absolute dominant force, Europe does manage to draw even with China, since British Unilad or The LADbible or Irish MetDaan feature in the Top 25. The absence of other large European countries stands out; Neither Germany or Italy have any media in the Top 100, and only France (in addition the the UK) can claim to have more one media in the Top 100 list.

If we tallied up the fans of just the US media outlets, including Tasty, we would Number of followers per region have over 1,000 million followers.

1.100M 499M 440M 217M 172M Cristiano Ronaldo has more followers (238 million) than all the European media channels in the Top 100 together.

There are more people following major brands such as Facebook, Nike or FC Barcelona than there are who follow the Rest of America number one media outlet on the list, Middle East – Europe USA National Geographic. África Asia Speaking in English, but not exclusively

We also wanted to see if the language used by the Languages by number Languages by of speakers media in Top 100 main media outlets is equivalent to the languages spoken around the world: at the end of the day, the Internet allows us to communicate with every corner ENGLISH ENGLISH of the planet, but language is a hurdle we seem to forever trip up on.

MANDARIN ARABIAN To this end, we have contrasted the main language of the 100 media outlets with the most followers with the ranking of the languages spoken most spoken by SPANISH SPANISH people as their first, second or foreign language.

English dominates both classifications, though in HINDI HINDI terms of this analysis, it represents one in three of the Top 100, and amasses almost half of the total followers on social networks. ARABIAN PORTUGUESE

Arabic is far more represented in the main media outlets than in the number of speakers, with 30 media in the Top 100 and over 20% of total fans. Mandarin Chinese, though it is the language of four of the main FRENCH MANDARIN media in the ranking, is not in the five most-used languages in the Top 100, even though it is a language used by over 1,030 million people worldwide. Old media, new formats

In the overall ranking, television channels dominate Internet: moving beyond the programmes they over any other type of media, occupying 59 of the broadcast or the articles they publish, they have had 100 Top positions and accumulating even more to reinvent themselves in web versions and practically followers, almost 67% of the total. create a new media outlet, editing their content into small morsels or even creating multimedia pieces that The written press is the next largest group, with 15 are not at all in line with their tradition. newspapers and 10 magazines in the ranking. It is surprising that it is precisely a magazine that heads up All of this aimed at penetrating another channel, the list, when only The New York Times, The People’s where there are more and more users, that are Daily of China and TIME are the only other media in especially active and that are increasingly essential the Top 20 that are not television channels. to re-broadcast the information from media outlets to new audiences. In recent years all these media outlets have adapted their content to the format, which in this case is the

Media by category in Top 100

9% TV 61% Newspapers

Digital

11% Magazines

Radio

16% Beyond infotainment

Top 100 media by genre

WITHOUT new digital media WITH new digital media

General-interest

Entretainment

Lifestyle

Science & Nature

Sport

Music

Food

Healthcare

In a Top 100 dominated by general and entertainment media (film, series, kids’ content…), we see that the remaining third of our ranking is made up of media specialized in different areas (sports, lifestyle, general interest and cooking). However, the arrival of digital media has been a game-changer.

The digital revolution has witnessed the birth of new media, and those who up until now had dominated the market were beginning to suffer the consumers’ preference for specialization. The figures show that interest in current affairs and politics was declining, and entertainment media were faring no better as they also were also slipping out of the Top 100.

Filling the void, the information market has become increasingly distributed and balanced, thanks to the growing popularity of subject matters that until now had always been anecdotal. The result of this change of trend is that the number of media outlets dedicated to general interest subjects has doubled within the Top 100, with history, nature and health subject matters standing out especially.

The true bombshell came with gastronomy. It seems that something’s ‘cooking up a storm’ in the digital world. The media outlets devoted to cooking and ‘quick & easy’ recipes have experienced tremendous growth (1% to 8% of the market share) and a new site called Tasty, started in 2015, is third in our ranking, trampling on well-esta- blished media outlets such as CNN, MTV and The New York Times in terms of number of followers. One might think that the tendency towards healthier living has had something to do with it, but a quick glance at these channels reveals that the true recipe for success is the secret desires that many of us admit to having: desserts, chocolate and cheese. European overview: London calling

We have already seen how Europe is one of the EUROPEAN MEDIA (Traditional) followers regions with less presence in the Top 100, with the exception of the BBC, but let’s take a closer look at 1 BBC News 103.459.673 the European media with the greatest digital following: 2 BBC Sport 20.188.879

3 Sky Sports 16.346.672

4 France 24 arabic 14.888.539

5 RT Arabic 14.703.054

6 El País 13.003.029

7 Daily Mail 12.125.566

8 Le Monde 11.173.557

9 France 24 11.137.386

10 বিবিসি বাং লা - BBC Bangla 10.611.214

Only 4 countries are represented in the A large chunk of the audience lives Top 10: UK, France, Russia and Spain. outside European borders (Arab countries, Latin America or even Bangladesh)

BBC power: 50% of the total number of people following European media are ENGLISH and ARABIC, are the main following the BBC. languages.

DIGITAL REVOLUTION: As many as five new El País, the only Spanish media outlet in media outlets have emerged in the UK the ranking, owes its influence on social and Ireland that surpass all the traditional networks to the sum of followers on more media in number of followers, except for than 25 Twitter accounts BBC News and BBC Sports. MetDaan, an Irish media outlet focusing on style and beauty tips and tutorials, weighs in at number 15 in the worldwide ranking! Latin American media: Brazil and it’s scope of influence

In the Top 100 of the world’s most followed media, it is Rest of America followers curious that just 10 are based in Latin America.

1 Rede Globo 30.878.533

2 SBT 20.665.027

3 Multishow 20.469.269

4 Portal R7 19.331.896

5 Esporte Interativo 19.200.988

6 Aristegui Noticias 14.836.829

7 Gshow - O Entretenimento da Globo 14.173.823

8 TeleHit 13.834.000

9 MUSIQUERA TU MEJOR COMPAÑERA 12.044.609

10 TN Todo Noticias 11.615.564

PORTUGUESE: Despite Spanish being the ENTERTAINMENT: is the focus of around 70% most widely spoken language on the of media outlets in Latin America. A trend Continent, the media outlets that are that could imply the use of these media as successful in terms of influence and a way to disconnect, rather than a followers are mostly from Brazil and window on current affairs. Portuguese-speaking (60% of the total).

TRADITIONAL MEDIA: Contrary to the REDE GLOBO: The leading media in the rest global trend, the king of media is televi- of the American Continent, and the sole sion (the Top 3 media in our ranking are TV representative of Latin America in the Top stations). The conclusions hardly vary even 25. when we take into account digital media.

DIGITAL COOKING: Digital Media specialized in cooking and ‘quick & easy’ recipes stand out as a category that is on the up and up round the globe. YouTube and TV: Dangerous liaisons

YouTube has become, in a very short time, the most And it seems that television content isn’t dead yet: important platform for content consumption in the four of the Top ten viral videos last year are fragments world, with over one billion users (2). In countries such of television programs that were uploaded by TV as the United States, many more people aged 18 to stations, with a marked musical tendency: from the 49 choose to watch YouTube instead of cable 12-year-old girl with her ukulele on America’s Got television. Is it the proverbial dragon that traditional Talent to James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke with television stations have to slay? Adele, which has rustled up over 153 million views and nearly two million likes. Many television stations have opted to create their own a-la-carte content platforms, where users have to register so they can gain access to exclusive content. Other stations have teamed up with YouTu- be to distribute part of their content and take advan- tage of the world-wide pull the service has to attract more viewers.

Top Trending videos 2016 views likes

1 Carpool Karaoke with Adele 153.028.099 1.878.036

2 Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen/PIKO-TARO 117.615.978 530.106

3 What's Inside a Rattlesnake Rattle? 68.115.923 261.753

4 Nike Football Presents: The Switch ft. Cristiano Ronaldo 61.665.878 329.183

5 Grace VanderWaal: 12-Year-Old Ukelele Player 55.160.693 644.049

6 Water Bottle Flip Edition 53.727.504 848.607

7 Channing Tatum vs. Jenna Dewan Tatum's Lip Sync 39.658.702 272.544

8 Donald Trump: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver 31.933.372 474.942

9 The $21,000 First Class Airplane Seat 34.211.213 502.983

10 Brothers Convince Little Sister of Zombie Apocalypse 22.980.050 223.953

(2) https://www.youtube.com/yt/press/es/statistics.html Conclusions: The secret of the most social media outlets

In short, both traditional and new media want maximum dissemina- tion among their readers, through social networks. So, how do the best do it?

The worldwide number 1, National Geographic, has always focused on high quality, spectacular visuals: using video as a fundamentally important element, despite being a magazine.

Focusing on video is also what has taken Tasty from fledgling website to one of the most followed media outlets. They have understood how to apply well-known marketing techniques that result in a massi- ve response from followers, such as surveys and rankings, however, the key to their success, their hallmark, is most certainly their video recipes.

A “recipe” that more and more media have followed: very visual content, preferably lasting under a minute and a half, with just one key idea and very little text. In Tasty community terms: short and sweet is 100 million times better. Top 100 media by number of followers

1 National Geographic Magazine 118.212.255 51 PTV Sports 15.890.237 Aljazeera Mubasher Channel 15.685.388 - رشابم ةريزجلا ةانق BBC News 107.463.876 52 2 15.610.150 ةيئاضفلا أرقا ةانق MTV 72.301.875 53 3 4 CNN 67.216.197 54 Virgin Radio Lebanon 15.498.194 5 National Geographic TV 64.027.999 55 MTV India 15.389.144 6 ESPN 59.494.975 56 Ounousa.com 15.345.747 7 The New York Times 55.019.949 57 MBC Action 15.340.925 8 CGTN 54.122.193 58 France 24 arabic 14.888.539 9 Discovery 51.065.806 59 Aristegui Noticias 14.836.829 10 HISTORY 45.793.906 60 7Day News Journal 14.832.659 11 CCTV 41.686.420 61 YAN News 14.804.911 12 People's Daily, China 39.697.447 62 RT Arabic 14.703.054 14.699.412 ةيبرع زوين ياكس Sky News Arabia 63 34.548.987 ةريزجلا ةانق - Al Jazeera Channel 13 Al Arabiya 33.524.617 64 HBO 14.691.050 ةيبرعلا ةانق 14 15 Nickelodeon 32.781.160 65 CBC Egypt 14.550.566 16 Rede Globo 30.878.533 66 COLORS TV 14.410.948 14.407.646 تن.يتديس Fox News 30.720.279 67 sayidaty.net 17 18 Cartoon Network 29.724.822 68 National Geographic Abu Dhabi 14.379.993 19 TIME 29.555.811 69 FOX Deportes 14.256.054 20 E! News 29.023.171 70 Gshow - O Entretenimento da Globo 14.173.823 21 CNN en Español 27.919.857 71 Express News 14.134.832 22 China Xinhua News 27.039.117 72 ARY News 14.039.396 23 MBC1 27.024.520 73 TeleHit 13.834.000 24 Food Network 25.895.177 74 HESPRESS 13.813.026 25 MBC 24.101.573 75 Dainik Jagran 13.761.747 26 Aaj Tak 23.688.196 76 USA TODAY 13.516.031 27 Playboy 23.561.116 77 GMA Network 13.403.709 13.393.343 مويلا يرصملا beIN SPORTS 22.492.699 78 28 MTVLA 13.334.829 79 22.364.674 عباسلا مويلا 29 13.211.230 دصر ةكبش Animal Planet 22.309.968 80 30 31 FOX 22.268.223 81 BuzzFeed Video 13.174.001 13.147.611 نطولا رابخأ CNN International 22.010.155 82 32 33 ABC News 21.980.000 83 MBC BOLLYWOOD 13.088.809 34 NTD Television (New Tang Dynasty Television) 21.921.629 84 Akhbarak.net 13.018.438 35 ABP News 21.530.531 85 Inked Magazine 13.011.184 36 SBT 20.665.027 86 El País 13.003.029 37 The Times of India 20.471.752 87 Disney Channel Latinoamérica 12.920.576 38 Multishow 20.469.269 88 Prothom Alo 12.198.594 39 MBC4 20.278.843 89 Daily Mail 12.125.566 40 BBC Sport 20.188.879 90 Khaosod 12.071.173 41 ABS-CBN News 19.603.698 91 MUSIQUERA TU MEJOR COMPAÑERA 12.044.609 Hawaa World Magazine) 19.455.112 92 China Daily 11.971.085) ءاوح ملاع ةلجم 42 43 Portal R7 19.331.896 93 Upworthy 11.666.544 44 Esporte Interativo 19.200.988 94 TN Todo Noticias 11.615.564 11.568.073 انيلايل | Akhbar Al Aan 17.834.596 95 Layalina - نآلا رابخا 45 46 HISTORY [en español] 17.744.042 96 Chouf TV 11.464.710 Eyes News Network) 17.492.357 97 Telecine 11.441.714) ةيرابخإلا نويع ةكبش 47 11.320.985 ةيقار رطاوخ ةلجم Telemundo 16.935.929 98 48 49 Sky Sports 16.346.672 99 Radio One Lebanon 11.197.343 50 Zoom TV 16.134.334 100 Le Monde 11.173.557 The popularity and impact of online influencers has AT THE HEART OF BRAND CONVERSATIONS increased relentlessly due to the inexorable rise of social media. That’s why at apple tree communica- We are international and independent. We use free tion we have been analysing the statistics and the thinking to create and develop communication trends behind the different social media platforms strategies for our clients. In a study of 500 European out there over the last 5 years. This ongoing study has PR agencies* we were ranked #1 in social media given us an expertise in understanding who the real and we have been recognized as the BEST PLACE influencers are, based not only on the number of TO WORK by Scopen. From our offices in Barcelona, followers, but also on the capacity they have to Bogota, London and Madrid we work for some of generate high impact, highly shareable content. the world’s leading brands including McDonald’s, Their influence is increasing exponentially and as such Google, Nike, Novartis, Dow and Spotify. they are a key element in the development of digital or integrated communication campaigns.

WHAT’S THE SOCIALSCENE? appletreecommunications.com [email protected]

A report created by apple tree communications in FOLLOW US which we analyse the evolution of social media We follow: “Top 100”, people with the most social media fans and followers in the UK and the World: the influence leaders. Leading brands on social media What do people talk about in social networks News and trends in social communication

by apple tree communications