Report Period: February 1 - February 28, 2015

Report: Video Most Shared Content On FacebookAn analysis of what content type drives sharing on Facebook. A look at 62 brands across 7 industries, including luxury fashion, state tourism, apparel retail, pet foods, fast food, luxury autos and energy drinks

Summary and HighlightsIf brands want to increase their sharing, which most do, then video is a good content type to be publishing.

That’s the repeated findings from our analysis of how users engage with different types of content. Initially, this trend surfaced in a report we published 3 years ago. And according to our latest report, the findings still stand.

What video delivers that other content types don’t likely varies from one industry to the next, and even from one video to the next. But one can surmise it’s multiple factors, including a heightened perceived value of video due to it’s more complicated production, and that video can tell a story more convincingly due to it’s immersive combination of visual and audio stimuli.

Highlights❖ For the 7 industries analyzed in this report, video was shared at a higher rate than the other Facebook content types in

every industry but one. Fast Food.❖ Industries like Luxury Autos, Energy Drinks and Pet Foods saw video shared at about 2x the rate of any other content

type. ❖ For the Pet Foods industry, over 27% of all engagements generated by video were shares.

Report Period: February 2015

Video most shared content type in 6 of 7 industriesThe chart shows the % of all engagements that were shares, broken out by content type and by industry.

In the Fast Food category, 6 of the 8 brands analyzed had the highest sharing rate with video. However, McDonald’s and Taco Bell had higher sharing rates for links. McDonald’s and Taco Bell both had high enough volume of link posts to make that the most shared media type for that industry.

Numerical breakout of sharing by media typeAs an example, of all the engagements generated by video in the Luxury Fashion category, 7.2% of them were shares, compared to photos, in which 2.6% of all engagements were shares.

Fast Food, with a higher sharing rate for links than videos, still has a video sharing rate of over 11%.

Industry Link Photo VideoLuxury Fashion 2.4% 2.6% 7.2%State Tourism 16.3% 9.1% 18.5%

Fast Food 20.2% 2.6% 11.1%Clothing Retail 1.5% 1.2% 5.7%

Pet Foods 16.1% 7.1% 27.1%Luxury Autos 5.0% 3.5% 14.5%Energy Drinks 5.8% 1.5% 14.5%

Chart: Sharing % by Media Type by Industry

Video is the second most popular content typeThe engaging power of photos on social media is well-known, and combined with the relative ease of generating photo content, it’s not surprising to see photos as the most common media form.

It’s notable that video is used more than links in 5 of the 7 industries analyzed.

Industry Link Photo VideoLuxury Fashion 26 166 50State Tourism 85 316 21

Fast Food 8 121 19Clothing Retail 46 324 27

Pet Foods 4 137 10Luxury Autos 7 286 67Energy Drinks 17 148 64

Total 193 1498 258

Chart: Sum of posting volume by media type by industry

Tourism and Pet Foods are the most shared industriesWhile it might be easy to see how content from industries with high emotional impact like pet foods and tourism brands can drive sharing, it’s also important to keep in mind that those industries typically have fewer fans than industries like luxury fashion, fast food, and luxury autos.

It’s well known that larger pages tend to have lower engagement rates than smaller pages.

So while we can compare sharing rates across different media types within an industry, viewing sharing rates across industries is less comparable.

Industry Share RateLuxury Fashion 3.60%State Tourism 10.07%

Fast Food 3.04%Clothing Retail 1.34%

Pet Foods 9.67%Luxury Autos 4.66%Energy Drinks 6.68%

Chart: Overall sharing rate for links, photos and videos by industry

About This ReportAll engagements are not created equal. Among the numerous ways users can engage with brands on Facebook, and social media in general, some are certain to weigh more heavily than others. That’s an assumption we bring to this report.

On Facebook, a share is one of three major public engagement types, along with a like and a comment. And while a like shows support, and posting a comment requires time and thought, the share is the interaction that takes the brands content and places it more visibly in the users own timeline. For all their network to see. From the early days of online to the present, marketers have demonstrated strong interest in having their brand stories ‘go viral’.

Thus, in an attempt to evaluate how strongly a piece of content makes the viewer feel about the brand, we can view the ratio of shares to other types of engagement as an indicator of the inspirational characteristics of a given content type.

Facebook’s core content types are links, photos, status updates, and videos. For most brands, 95% or more of their engagements will be among those four. We’ve eliminated status updates from this report for two reasons. A number of brands in this analysis didn’t post any status updates for the month of February. And for many brands who did post at least one status update, their updates received no shares.

Report Period: February 2015

Industries and BrandsA listing of the brands analyzed in each industry for this report.

Fast FoodBurger King, Carl’s Jr, Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, Jack in the Box, McDonald’s, Subway, Taco Bell

Energy Drinks5-Hour Energy, Burn Energy Drink, Monster Energy, Red Bull, Rockstar Energy Drink

Luxury AutomobilesAcura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Infiniti, Jaguar, Land Rover, Lexus, Lincoln, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, Volvo

Pet FoodsALPO, Beggin’, Dick Van Patten’s, Eukanuba, IAMS, Pedigree, Purina ONE, Wellness Natural

Luxury FashionArmani, Burberry, Calvin Klein, Chanel, Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace

Clothing - RetailAbercrombie & Fitch, American Eagle Outfitters, Banana Republic, Diesel, Gap, H&M, Levi’s, Lucky Brand, Roots Canada, Tommy Bahama

State TourismAlaska Travel News, Explore Georgia, Hawaii, I Love New York, Pure Michigan, Texas Tourism, Visit California, Visit Colorado, Visit Florida

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