When you’re spending time on Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) you’ll encounter loads and loads of posts from various publishers that you’ve probably become accustomed to over the years, some more trustworthy than others, so we were curious to see which are the 12 biggest Facebook publishers in 2017.
So what exactly is a Facebook publisher? Well, it’s a site that pushes their content over Facebook, sharing it with the world, sometimes even paying to distribute it to a larger fan base, trying to lure in more people to like their page and become a follower.
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They can be regular article publishers, or perhaps video publishers, like LADbible, which just happens to be the source of this year’s most viewed video on Facebook, thus far. According to TubularInsights, that cool video of a humpback whale lost in the Ventura Marina in California has earned the top spot thus far with over 84.4 million views. When it comes to the most viewed Facebook live videos, however, we have yet to have a clear report for this year. Last year’s winner, however, was the funny Chewbacca Mom and her laughter-filled clip.
If you’re a major fan of Facebook, then you might also be interested in checking out these 16 Biggest Facebook Groups in 2017.
In order to figure out who the top Facebook publishers are, we checked out the NewsWhip blog, where you can find almost-monthly reports on this topic. NewsWhip’s Facebook list shows us just who’s sharing loads of content on the platform and who is the most successful in their marketing. So, using insights from NewsWhip, we took into consideration the number of engagements of each of the top publishers for this year, from their reports issued in January, March, July, August, and September. We then ran an average on these, trying to see how many monthly likes, shares, comments, and reactions they each registered. Then, we ranked them all by the numbers they got. Lastly, we went on to visit each of their pages and took note of the number of likes each had. Additionally, we took into account the top three satellite pages each site had, as long as they carried out the name of the publisher in the title of the page. NBC, for instance, got very few additional pages because most of their satellites come from show pages like The Voice.
That being said, here are the 12 biggest Facebook publishers in 2017, beginning on the next page.
12. Washington Post
Total Score: 4
Engagements average: 19,144,654
Page likes: 7,248,981
The Washington Post is ranked 175th globally and 47th in the United States, according to Alexa’s traffic stats. The site’s main Facebook page has just over 6 million likes, but the number grows considerably when taking into consideration its satellite pages dedicated to various other sections of the site.
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11. India Times
Total Score: 6
Engagements average: 19,309,793
Page likes: 7,564,608
India Times is one of the most popular sites from that region, ranking 235th globally and 14th in India. The site’s main Facebook page has over 7.2 million likes, with another 0.3 million coming from various other pages they’ve set up in relation. In September alone the publisher had an article count of 44,342 and over 13.6 million engagements.
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10. NBC
Total Score: 9
Engagements average: 25,254,975
Page likes: 4,728,720
NBC is up next on our list, with Alexa’s ranking putting the site on the 2,755th place globally and 480th in the United States. The TV network had over 38,000 articles published in September, garnering over 23.5 million engagements on Facebook. The site’s main Facebook page barely has 2.6 million likes, but shows such as The Voice have garnered over 17 million.
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9. BBC
Total Score: 13
Engagements average: 18,147,378
Page likes: 64,673,322
Up next on our list is the BBC, the British broadcaster that’s been around since right after the First World War. With a long history of professionalism, the BBC has become one of the most reliable news sources out there. The main BBC News page alone has over 44 million likes, with additional satellite pages raising the total up to 64 million likes. When it comes to the engagement generated by the site, we noticed that the BBC had over 16.5 million likes, shares, comments and reactions on Facebook in September, although this year’s average runs higher than this. In September, the BBC pushed out over 25,000 articles.
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8. New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT)
Total Score: 13
Engagements average: 24,334,675
Page likes: 16,679,887
The New York Times Co (NYSE:NYT) is undoubtedly one of the best news publications out there, with a history going back to 1851. Over the years, the newspaper has managed to win 122 Pulitzer Prizes, more than any other publication in history, something that Donald Trump clearly ignores when he it calls it “fake news”. Back to our stats, however, the main NYT Facebook page has over 14.7 million likes. In September, for instance, it only published some 5,735 articles on the platform, and yet managed to bring over 25.6 million reactions, likes, shares, and comments.
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7. USA Today
Total Score: 13
Engagements average: 25,810,539
Page likes: 10,988,677
Founded some 35 years ago, USA Today has become one of the most-read newspapers in America, but it’s also one of the 11 biggest Facebook publishers in 2017. Over the summer, USA Today hasn’t been too active on Facebook, but in the first-half of the year it managed to fight against the best. Back in March, for instance, USA Today ranked third on the list of the biggest sites on Facebook with over 25.6 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions for just over 13,000 articles. The site’s main Facebook page has over 8.6 million likes.
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6. Buzzfeed
Total Score: 14
Engagements average: 20,649,537
Page likes: 29,368,480
Buzzfeed is a site that’s mostly known for funny articles, charts and other “light topics,” but it also has a news side that’s become quite popular over the years. Launched just ten years ago, Buzzfeed has grown a lot and it seems there’s still room for it to grow. The main Buzzfeed page has over 10.8 million likes, but with the number of satellite pages Buzzfeed has, it’s no surprise that the three most popular bring the number up to over 29.3 million. When it comes to the publisher’s success on Facebook, well, in September they managed to reach 16.8 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions for just under 9,000 articles.
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5. Daily Mail
Total Score: 14
Engagements average: 23,974,672
Page likes: 17,884,599
The British tabloid the Daily Mail has been around since the 1980s, creating quite a name for itself. On Facebook, the main page has over 12.7 million likes, while satellite pages bring the number up to 17.8 million. The site is quite active on Facebook, posting over 52,400 articles in September alone. Those articles brought a total of 21.3 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions, which is slightly less than the year’s average thus far.
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4. CNN
Total Score: 16
Engagements average: 23,578,142
Page likes: 59,931,999
Founded in 1980, CNN is one of the most appreciated news sources in the world. On Facebook, the site has over 29 million likes on its main page, but additional satellite pages bring the number to close to 60 million. The site runs quite a successful marketing campaign on Facebook, as in September, it managed to bring in over 23.8 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions, from just 5,463 articles, which is quite a good yield.
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3. Fox News
Total Score: 17
Engagements average: 26,207,160
Page likes: 17,035,451
Fox News, the American broadcaster that’s been present on the market since 1996, has quite the gathering on Facebook despite all the biased information it pushes, with close to 16 million likes on its main page. The site is extremely active on Facebook, pushing over 55,000 articles in September alone, and managing to gather close to 28 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions.
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2. Bored Panda
Total Score: 17
Engagements average: 28,070,605
Page likes: 15,729,454
Unlike most sites present on this list, Bored Panda stands out because it’s not a news outlet, but rather a publication that caters to viral stories, cat videos, and DIY helpers. It’s the kind of page you follow to see something fun and entertaining on your feed. And this recipe has been quite successful. So successful, in fact that the site’s main Facebook page has over 11.6 million likes.
In September, for instance, it was the most successful site on the list. Just 1,231 articles managed to gather over 32 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions from Facebook users, resulting in the best yield of any of the 11 biggest Facebook publishers in 2017.
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1. Huffington Post
Total Score: 20
Engagements average: 26,786,628
Page likes: 18,567,090
Finally, at the top of our list we find the Huffington Post, a site where you can find news, satire and blogs on all topic categories you can think of. Launched back in 2005, the site has become one of the most popular news sources in the world. The site’s main Facebook page has over 9.7 million likes, but additional pages bring that number up to over 18.5 million.
When it comes to attracting viewers, the HuffPost is quite successful. In September they published over 13,000 articles and managed to attract over 17.4 million likes, shares, comments, and reactions on the world’s most popular social network. That number, however, was the worst registered all year according to NewsWhip, as the site usually got closer to 30 million engagements per month.
That being said, these are the 12 biggest Facebook publishers in 2017.
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Disclosure: None
