Most english tv shows are loved all around the world. This week we analyzed some of the most successful ones of the last years.
Some of the largest fanbases on Facebook
The show with the most fans has been on tv for more than 2 decades. With 69.9m fans The Simpsons are as popular as ever, followed by Family Guy (55.1m) and South Park (48.8m). Popular cartoons have the largest fanbases, even American Dad has 18.1m followers, while their “real life” competitors fall a little shorter, the biggest being Two and a Half Men (30.7m), The Big Bang Theory (28.7m), HIMYM (24.5m) and Glee (28.7m). In general cartoons seem to appeal to a wider audience, maybe it’s due to the fact that they are not driven by real actors which makes it possible to explore any idea the producers have and therefore make the shows way more interesting and the story more varied.
The fastest growing page is that of The Blacklist (8.62%), followed by Arrow (6.35%), Almost Human (5.97%), The Originals (5.28%), Reign (4.43%), Sleepy Hollow (3.76%) Elementary (3.5%) and Hannibal (3.39%). The biggest pages are the slowest growing ones, something that is to be expected because usually tv shows build up their fanbase in the first couple of episodes, maybe seasons. Shows like Family Guy, The Simpsons, American Dad, South Park have been running and been successful for so long that barely anyone will not know them. On average the pages are growing 1.67% weekly.
The right amount
The Blacklist is not only the fastest growing page but has also the most active fanbase. 7% is pretty high and basically means that every single fan interacted 0.07 times with the page. Considering how often the page posts that is pretty impressive. Sleepy Hollow (3.76%), Reign (3.3%), Downtown Abbey (2.5%) and Orphan Black (2.5%), Hannibal (2.4%) and The Originals (2.2%) complete the group of pages that have an engagement of 2% or more. The fans are definitely looking forward to the new seasons. The biggest pages and the pages of shows that already finished have the lowest engagement. Shows such as Gossip Girl or Nikita are barely reaching their fans, something that isnt surprising considering that the shows don’t have any new content to post.
With 1.1% on average that engagement is decent.
When we are looking at the post interaction we see a different development. Although most of the pages having high engagements also have high post interactions, shows like Scandal (2.3%), Almost Human (2.1%), Game of Thrones (1.7%) and Da Vinci’s Demons (1.6%) manage to be part of the top 10 here. It’s impressive to see that, even though being finished, Nikita manages to generate a post interaction of 2.1%.
Engagement and post interaction having the same average is a clear indicator that the shows try to heavily advertise on Facebook. Lots of content is posted and the pages try to constantly keep the dialogue going.
Lots of content
Every page publishes 1 post per day on average. Most content is posted by South Park (3.1), Downtown Abbey (2.2), The Walking Dead (2.0), Archer (1.9), Sleepy Hollow (1.8), New Girl (1.8) and Grimm(1.6) with season premieres and award winning performances getting the most responses.
The Blacklist hat ein Video geteilt – 27.01.14
57.4912.4504.289
Downton Abbey hat ein Bild geteilt – 19.01.14
204.7038.45314.566
Supernatural shared a picture – 1/9/14
216,6554,02613,808
Letting your fans know that you just made a couple episodes accessible on a free streaming platform definitely helps when trying to get their attention as well. Something more shows should do to advertise their product in foreign countries.
33,4392,2856,405
Pictures are the most commonly used media (65.5%). Interestingly the second place in terms of Engagement goes to pure-text status updates and not videos or links, although they are used a lot more.
Underestimated potential
With 0% on average the service is as bad as it can get. Barely anyone reacts to user posts, but most of them allow their followers to post content and comment on their wall. The only pages that even bother to react are American Dad (13%), New Girl (9%), Bones (3%), Doctor Who (3%), Glee (3%), Sleepy Hollow (2%), Scandal (2%) and Almost Human (1%). Needless to
say that those service levels are still pretty bad.
The response time doesnt look any different. Although the average being 12h, which is pretty decent, most of the pages arent taken into consideration because they never respond. The pages that react to posts the fastest are Bones and The Simpsons (both 0.2h), The Walking Dead (1h). Shows, such as Greys Anatomy (38h) and Doctor Who (24h) respond, but do so very slowly and to less than 1% of all userposts. Only Sleepy Hollow (1.2h) and Almost Human (0.6h) respond a little more often.
Direct interaction with the fans can definitely be helpful when trying to establish a community. A good example of “How to do it right”.
Conclusion
All in all the pages post a lot of content, but at the end of the day thats all that’s it. The pages themselves don’t try to keep conversations alive, probably also because it doesn’t seem necessary most of the time. A little bit more commitment would definitely not hurt, though. After all a direct conversation can also be used for feedback and to get inspiration for future episodes and storylines, because at the end of the day the show is supposed to appeal to the audience, so why not try to ask them what they would like to see?
All calculations were made with Fanpage Karma. Fanpage Karma is an online tool used to analyze social media profiles. Users can monitor an unlimited number of Facebook pages, Twitter profiles or YouTube channels. Either their own or those of competitors. Fanpage Karma provides valuable insights on posting strategies and performance. It gives hints on how to improve engagement.
Want to analyze the pages yourself? Head over to Fanpage Karma and try it for free!
Featured Picture: CC-BY Paul Stevenson