A benchmark and content analysis of what snack brands are doing on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and Instagram. Brands analyzed are Oreo, Starburst, Skittles, Reese’s, Snickers, Butterfinger, and Twix.

1. Report Period: October 1 - October 31, 2015
Report: Social Media
Benchmark & Content
Trends for the Snack
Food Industry
A benchmark and content analysis
of what snack brands are doing on
Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
YouTube, and Instagram. Brands
analyzed are Oreo, Starburst,
Skittles, Reese’s, Snickers,
Butterfinger, and Twix.

2. Summary
In this report we look at the fan counts, posting habits, engagement levels, and content themes of the
top snack food brands in the US. We’ll analyze 7 category leaders: Oreo, Skittles, Starburst, Reese’s,
Snickers, Butterfinger, and Twix
Highlights
❖ The largest network account among all these brands is Oreo’s Facebook account: 41.3 million
fans.
❖ Instagram accounts on average gained over 26% in fan growth, industry-wide.
❖ Between Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, Instagram generates the most engagement,
despite averaging the lowest fan count. Compared with .07% average growth rate for
Facebook.
❖ Halloween is the central topic for this month's posts, a logical result for candy brands in
October.
Report Period: October 2015

3. How fans are distributed across the social networks
Facebook is the dominant
social network for all
brands.
To compare all networks,
check out the Average
row, noting that the
average is calculated for
only the rows with
accounts for that network.
Given how the average is
calculated, it favors
networks with only a few
large brands active. Yet
still, Facebook has over
97% of the averaged
network audience.

4. How fan growth is distributed across the social networks
Instagram is still the
standout network in terms
of industry-wide growth
rate.
Growth rates on this page
can be compared with the
fan count chart on the
previous slide. It’s rare to
have a brand rank high in
both fan count and
growth rate in the same
network. However, Oreo
is doing this on
Facebook, Instagram, and
Google+.

5. How fans are engaging across the social networks
Oreo and Snickers are
close in engagement for
this time period, with
Oreo just edging out
Snickers.
The difference for Oreo is
clearly their Instagram
account, which is
generating a significant
increase in the overall
engagement performance
of their social media
program.

6. Top data points on Facebook
It’s notable that this
industry seems to be
consistently promoting
their posts on Facebook
(with the exception of
Reese's), as indicated by
their considerably higher
total Engagement vs 24h
Engagement (more on
that analysis here).
Interestingly, Snickers had
fewer public posts than
Oreo, but generated more
engagement. Most of that
difference was likely
generated through paid
promotion.

7. Top terms on Facebook
Halloween is the high
holiday for the candy
industry, so its not a
shock to see it as a
leading topic and
hashtags, both in terms of
engagement level (color)
and volume (size).
Other campaign themes
in this industry are
represented by hashtags.

8. Top Posts on Facebook
Here again we see the
impact of Halloween as 4
of the 5 most engaging
posts are about the
holiday. Keep in mind
though, these posts are
likely heavily promoted,
as seen in the % figure in
the upper right of each
post chart. That % is an
estimate of the % of a
posts engagement that
was generated by post
promotion.

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