Playhouse Communication Ltd's Top Ten Nigerian brands on Facebook & Twitter.

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Top Nigerian Brands on Facebook & Twitter
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By Tolu Onile-Ere, 27 Dec, 2011
Introduction
It‟s the end of the year and with it comes all the lists – the Top Films of the Year,
Top Songs of the Year, Top Celebs of the Year, etc etc etc. So we at The
Playhouse decided to jump on the bandwagon and come up with our own list. We
decided to look at the two main social media platforms, Facebook & Twitter, and
see which Nigerian brands are using these platforms most „successfully‟ – „success‟
in this case being measured by the number of „Likes‟ and „Followers‟ a brand has.
We decided to compile a list of the Top Ten Nigerian Brands on Facebook &
Twitter. Now, to make it more interesting, or depending on which way you want to
look at it, create even more work for ourselves, we also decided to look at the
brands by certain industry sectors – banks, publications, consumer brands, radio
stations – and also review the performance of celebrities as well.
This Thought Piece however focuses only on the overall Top Ten Nigerian Brands
on Facebook & Twitter. The rest of the lists will be shared in a subsequent Thought
Piece.
First, a few things to note:
 In compiling the list, we have looked solely at the official Nigerian page of the
brand. Some brands are global and may have a strong presence on the
platforms, however, since we believe in the adage „Think Global, Act Local‟ we
have only considered those brands that have a specific Nigerian page.
 Facebook & Twitter do not supply data on or monitor „brand‟ performance on
their platforms. This has meant that to compile the lists, we had to come up with
the names of the brands and then physically trawl through each platform to see
if the brand has a presence on the platform and if so, how many „Likes‟ or
„Followers‟ they have. This has meant that there might be some brands you, the
reader, are aware of whose numbers mean that they should have made it into
our Top Ten but which we have missed. If so, please excuse us and simply

2. email us the Brand name and we will include it when we look at updating the list
– yes, we are going to make this review a regular thing.
 When you check the brand pages, you will find that the numbers we have down
are wrong. They were the numbers as of the date & time when we checked the
page but the very nature of the platforms means that the numbers change
regularly, so, the number I note if I was to check a page now, might be different
from the number if I was to check it again by the time I have finished writing this
piece.
That‟s it.
So, without further ado, and all protocols observed, Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys
and Girls, the Playhouse proudly presents, the Top Ten Nigerian Brands on
Facebook & Twitter.
TOP TEN NIGERIAN BRANDS ON FACEBOOK & TWITTER
FACEBOOK TWITTER
NO. OF NO. OF
BRANDS LIKES BRANDS FOLLOWERS
1 MTN NIGERIA 369,159 1 MTN 101,051
2 BEAT FM 364,382 2 BEAT FM 45,571
VANGUARD
3
3 COOL FM 206,899 NEWSPAPER 38,724
4 GT BANK 196,713 4 PUNCH 25,941
5 VANGUARD 179,244 5 SAHARA REPORTERS 23,197
6 DAILY TRUST 126,936 6 CHANNELS TV 20,603
7 ALWAYS 126,467 7 COOL FM 19,113
8 MTV BASE NIGERIA 93,512 8 RHYTHM 93.7 15,976
FIRST BANK OF
9
NIGERIA 76,684 9 THISDAY LIVE 15,822
STAR NIGERIA
10
(BEER) 75,018 10 GUARDIAN 15,183
Our thoughts
 We have to applaud MTN for their first position on both platforms. What makes
this feat even more impressive is that as of early August 2011, MTN had just
under 30,000 „Likes‟ on Facebook and just under 15,000 „Followers‟ on Twitter.
So in four months, MTN has grown its „reach‟ on Facebook by 1130.5% and by
596.9% on Twitter! Impressive – especially when you consider that their service
is still rubbish (sorry couldn‟t resist). So, how did they do it? Well, long story

3. short, they ran a series of promos & games1 giving away free credit and as the
graphic below shows, that is the top reason why people follow a brand on both
platforms.
Reasons People Follow Brands on Facebook & Twitter
 We also think the Nigerian Banking industry as a whole should be commended
for having taken on-board social media (esp Facebook) as part of their
marketing activities. Over three quarters of the 20 Nigerian banks have a
Facebook page and two of them – Guaranty Trust at no. 4 and First Bank at no.
9 – make it into the Top Ten.
 Interesting to see that only one „consumer goods‟, namely Always, makes it into
the Top Ten. In fact while doing our research, it was surprising to see how few
Nigerian consumer goods brands have a presence on the social media
platforms. Everybody seems to be aware/agree that the old advertising model of
„interruption‟ is out-dated and that successful brands need to engage their
audience and that social media provides the opportunity for engagement
yet…Having said that, P&G seem to be taking social media seriously, having
set up Nigerian Facebook pages for Always, Oral B, Pampers, Gillette & Ariel.
 Finally a mention on Twitter. Our research indicates that most brands across all
industry sectors are not currently active on the platform. This might be because
the platform is not yet as popular as Facebook (Facebook is the most visited
1
To find out more about one of the promos MTN ran, have a read of our Thought Piece titled “MTN Social
Media campaign”.

4. website from Nigeria whilst Twitter is number 8 – three places behind YouTube
which is number 5). Or might be because they aren‟t yet sure how to use the
platform (give us a call and we‟ll give you some ideas – yes, blatant plug).
So, we hope you found the list useful, interesting or fun? Anyway, we will be
sharing the rest of the lists shortly.
All that‟s left is to wish you all the best for the year ahead – May the best of your
past be the worst of your future.
About Playhouse Communication Ltd
Playhouse is a full service digital advertising agency. If you would like to find out
more, visit our website at www.playhousecomm.com, „like‟ us on Facebook at
www.facebook.com/playhousecomm, email us at info@playhousecomm.com or call
us on +234 (0)13205232.