National Geographic Society 

Lizzie Steen

National Geographic (NG), the iconic scientific and educational institution, rose in the SBI’s ranks this week from 76 to 67. The nine-point shift was the result of numerous, response-inducing Twitter posts, two of which raised almost 2,000 retweets from NG followers.

Their “Photo of the Day” consistently is each week’s most popular tweet, and this week was no exception. The image featured a loggerhead sea turtle swimming off the coast of Florida. The baby turtle produced 975 retweets and 527 “favorites.”

A second post created almost as much response with the headline, “First Meteor Shower of 2013 Peaks Tonight.” When Twitter followers clicked on the tagline, they were led to the company’s website, which featured an article about the history of the Quadrantid meteor shower. National Geographic’s ability to repeatedly generate fascinating and globally relevant content contributed to their rise on the Dachis Group’s Social Business Index.  

Abercrombie & Fitch

Lizzie Steen

Abercrombie & Fitch subsidiary, Hollister, advanced eight spots this week to 88 on the Dachis Group’s Social Business Index. Two Facebook posts garnered 33, 586 likes, 223 comments, and 230 shares. One post simply shared the company’s excitement for the coming year with the exclamation, “HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2013 is gonna be awesome!”  The second post was product-oriented and featured two new men’s nylon jackets. (They’re online in black and red here.)

Hollister’s success in social this week resulted from the company’s ability to obtain elevated response from consumers. Ultimately, the brand achieved this by both stimulating discussion about the upcoming season and promoting new products.


Carnival Corporation 

Allison Squires

As winter burrows in across the country, people are dreaming of warm summer vacations. Carnival is capitalizing on fans’ love for a cruise vacation through imagery, causing them to sail up ten points in the SBI rankings.

Last week a simple call-out on a picture of a child getting ready to go down a slide playfully asked fans to ‘share if you want to go next,’ driving high engagement for the brand. Additionally, Carnival’s New Year’s countdown picture post drew high engagement from fans celebrating the new year. The gorgeous picture of the ship with fireworks in the background drew many comments, likes, and shares from fans who eagerly passed the joyous image to friends. Using imagery of ships, great destinations, and happy people on board evoked a feeling of happiness and fun times among viewers, leaving Carnival’s Facebook fans engaged and wanting to sail away.

Editor’s note: The Social Business Index, a free ranking compiled by The Dacchis Group, is based on an analysis of conversations on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social platforms.

It is based on the execution and effectiveness of businesses at driving outcomes such as brand awareness, content sharing, and advocacy.