3332 ISSUE 02 Q1 2013THE SOCIAL BUSINESS JOURNAL

100k

2 million followers

1 million followers

3 million followers

4 million followers

50k

10k

10k

100k

100k

10k

@DWAnimation 75kDreamWorks Animation

@NBCNews 282k

@NBCOlympics 180k

@NBCSports 109k

@FOXSports 160k

@FOXNews 1.7m

@serenawilliams 2.7m

@DwightHoward 3.3m

@NBCNews

@FOXNews

@spongebob 500k

@iCarly 775k

@MirandaCosgrove 2.2m iCarly actress

500k

@iCarly

@NBCOlympics

@NBCSports

@FOXSports

@NBC 174k@NBC

@FOXSports @FOXSports

@serenawilliams

@DwightHoward

It’s a big world, after allCharting The Walt Disney Company’s Twitterverse

Twitter didn’t exist in 1928 —and neither did cartoons with synchronized sound. Regardless, one whistling

mouse character started a media revolution as disruptive as Twitter’s 140 characters.

Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie” (considered the debut of Mickey & Minnie Mouse) seems ancient to us now. But that grainy black and white cartoon rodent was ahead of his time. And The Walt Disney Company continues to be ahead of the curve in the age of social.

Many of us start our day (“Good Morning America”) and end it (“Jimmy Kimmel Live!”) with Disney property ABC. Pixar and Disney films are practically part of the family. But you may be surprised to learn that most of the chatter in Disney’s Twitter portfolio isn’t about fairy tales

or mind-blowing computer animation. Almost half of Disney’s +30 million

followers are thanks to interest in actual humans like LeBron James, Hope Solo, Venus

Williams, and Tim Tebow.

ESPN’s network of journalists stoke the social fires by talking sports (and trash) and feeding us fast facts via Twitter, driving the company to #2 on the Social Business Index (socialbusinessindex.com).

Still, Disney has competition. Companies like Viacom seem to be doing a better job making their fictional characters accessible on Twitter. Relative newcomer Spongebob Squarepants (Nickelodeon) has an audience of half a million while Disney’s 100-year-old Tinker Bell has just three thousand.

So... have you found and followed Nemo? What do you think Buzz DMs to Woody? And then there’s Snow White — what does she think about all of these remakes and retweets? Disney and many others with huge (or not) followings have major engagement and advocacy opportunities via social. To the generations growing up in this connected world, will an @ reply from Mickey mean more than hugging a sweaty person in a mouse costume at a theme park?

Probably. n

WORDS & VISUALS BY JACOB HEBERLIE

+ D G D A T A V I Z : D I S N E Y ’ S S B I R A N K & T W I T T E R A U D I E N C E S

30.7 million total followers

espn14.8m

abc7.9m

disney5.6m

other2.4m

the

WaltDisn

ey

company

social business index

rank #2; score 2684

twitter followers

30.7 million

32 33

SOURCE: SOCIAL BUSINESS INDEX

ISSUE 0

2 · Q

1 2013

THE S

OC

IAL B

USIN

ESS JO

URNAL

THE A-TEAM.IT’s the advocacy era — and ADVOCATES ARE THE SUPERHEROEs in tHE FAST-PACED WORLD OF Performance Brand Marketing P10

PLUS: CREATE AN advocacy PROGRAM IN 7 steps P13

The previous article was excerpted from issue 02 of the Social Business Journal, published by Dachis Group.

Dachis Group helps improve your brand performance by measuring and managing your social engagement via a powerful suite of SaaS tools and services. The Social Business Journal is a free quarterly publication by Dachis Group. No part of this publication can be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, photocopy, etc.), except as permitted by the 1976 U.S. Copyright Act, without permission of the publisher. Requests can be submitted at sbj@dachisgroup.com. Any comments? Questions? Suggestions? Visit dach.is/02-sbj to let us know what you think.

DACHIS GROUP515 Congress AvenueSuite 2420Austin, Texas 78701USA

AMERICAS: +1 512 275 7825EUROPE: +44 0 20 7357 7358

www.dachisgroup.com sbj@dachisgroup.com