2020 Top 50 Building Products Manufacturers on Social Media

The third annual report ranking social media audience, activity and engagement

As we have stated over the last three years, social media is made for the home and building market: it’s visual, it encourages engagement and it gives manufacturers a way to truly interact with the trade and homeowners. The 2020 Top 50 Building Products Manufacturers on Social Media report this year fully supports this understanding and shows the involvement of social media is growing.

Once again, we researched which building products manufacturers are performing at a high level on social media and not just in terms of audience size.

This report delves deeply into what the most engaging building products manufacturers are doing across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and YouTube to give you some great insights and hopefully inspire your next efforts.

METHODOLOGY

We used Rival IQ to analyze social media posts across all social channels for 50 leading building products manufacturers. We analyzed post data across a six-month period beginning July 1, 2019 through January 6, 2020.

We gathered data using Rival IQ’s cross-channel ranking capability, as well as channel-specific rankings for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube. We are reporting the Top 50 rankings for total engagement, ratings of engagement per post, applause (reaction), conversation (interaction), amplification (sharing), total audience and total activity.

Engagement is defined as measurable interaction on social media posts, including likes, comments, favorites, retweets, shares and reactions. Engagement rate is calculated based on all these interactions divided by total follower count.

We’ve also provided rankings for each individual channel.

KEY FINDINGS

The report is rich with insights and information about the leading building products manufacturers and their social media marketing efforts. There are also a few surprises to share with you.

Here is an example of what we found:

• Milwaukee Tool is the Top BPM on social media. Their total engagement 1.76 million followers which is 100 times greater than the median of 17,200 and three-times that of #2 Makita. Milwaukee Tool is also the leader in applause and conversation.
• The median engagement applause for the Top 50 is 11,500. Makita is ranked second with 522,000 reactions. Applause is calculated by tracking likes and reactions across all tracked social channels.
• The median engagement conversations are 499 with rankings for runner-up DeWalt totaling 30,700. Conversations are calculated by tracking comments across all tracked social channels.
• Sherwin Williams leads engagement amplification with 41,300. Interestingly, Pinterest is the top performing platform. The median rate is 1,450 for the Top 50. Amplification is calculated by tracking retweets and shares across all tracked social channels.
• Simpson Doors is the leader in average engagement rate per post of 3.22% compared the Top 50 average of 1.37%. This is the second year in a row with this ranking for Simpson Doors.

The largest audience in the Top 50 is 4.85 million across channels for Electrolux.  Next in line is DeWalt with an audience of 2.65 million. The median audience size for the Top 50 is 123,000.

Social media activity is measured in posts and pins. Progress Lighting emerged as the leader with 2,520 posts followed by Shaw Floors at 2,190 posts. Pinterest is the primary focus of these leaders. The median social media activity was 293.

THERE IS MORE

The research findings we have are rich with insights into best practices and opportunities for all of the Top 50 building products manufacturers on social media. For example, power tools companies have recognized the value of investing in social media and they are becoming quite good at using it. We can also see opportunities for specific manufacturers to improve their content strategy or post cadence.

When we dig deeper into the research to determine the best social media and content strategies and executions that are driving the leaders to the top of their respective rankings. The research includes examples of the best performing posts and pins across channels, the type of posts that perform best, the kind of media that is ranking strongest, best days and time of day, and more.

All of this research can assist these building products manufacturers and others to improve and optimize their investments as social media marketers. The only thing remaining is the expertise to make it happen.