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From the Forbes 500 to the Facebook 50

Every year, it seems many of us wait for the list to see which companies will make it on to the Fortune 500.  Well now, a few of those companies have joined a new list.  The Facebook 50.  The new group was created by The Big Money, an online magazine focusing on the important aspects of economics and money.  The list covers to top ranking companies who are using Facebook to the best of their advantage.

Many have questioned The Big Money, because besides Facebook, there are plenty of other social media platforms companies are using, Twitter for example.  However the website explains, “social media is highly fickle; there is some reason to think that as soon as a site becomes an effective platform for corporate promotion, its irrelevance is imminent. That could still happen to Facebook, and in the last several months Twitter has gained a lot of momentum and millions of users. For now, however, Facebook still offers several advantages over its rivals: size, return usage, and the depth and variety of what companies can do.”

The company did have a few qualifications for companies to even be considered to join the ranks.  First, the company’s Facebook page needed to have a minimum of 200,000 fans.  From there companies were rated by how often they had updated their Facebook page, and interacted with their fans. The Big Money also took into consideration at “how fast a company’s site has grown and how creatively the companies are using their Facebook presence, as evaluated by a distinguished panel of outside judges.”

So who made the list?  Coca-Cola came in first place because of their multinational campaigns.  Number 2 is Starbucks, which surprised most people, thinking that McDonald’s would be ahead of the coffee house giant, but The Big Money explains that McDonald’s doesn’t use Facebook like Starbucks does.  McDonald’s did make the list however at number 23.  Disney came in at number 3, while Victoria’s Secret and iTune’s wrap up the top 5.   

The Big Money made it clear that they were trying to make the list as fair as possible and noted, “there are wide discrepancies in how deeply even Facebook’s most popular brands engage with the site. One feature of our list is that we included only ‘official’ company sites. Many popular brands — such as Nutella and Converse — have large followings on Facebook, but they’re created and moderated by fans, not the companies. That strikes us as leaving opportunities on the table; the companies that score highest on this list are those — like Coca-Cola — that have been able to strike a balance with their fans.”

The website encourages anyone who disagrees with their list, or believes something is missing, to discuss it with them on The Big Money’s Facebook page.  To see who else made the list, check out The Facebook 50 List.  Within the next few days, a list of the Twitter 12 is also expected to be released by the online magazine.