100k 2 mi l l i on f ol l o w e r s 1 m i l l i o n f o l l o w e r s 3 mi l l i on f ol l o w e rs 4 mi l l i on f ol l owe rs 50k 10k 10k 100k 100k 10k @DWAnimation 75k DreamWorks Animation @NBCNews 282k @NBCOlympics 180k @NBCSports 109k @FOXSports 160k @FOXNews 1.7m @serenawilliams 2.7m @DwightHoward 3.3m @spongebob 500k @iCarly 775k @MirandaCosgrove 2.2m iCarly actress @NBC 174k It’s a big world, after all Charting The Walt Disney Company’s Twitterverse T witter 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 + DG DATA VIZ: DISNEY’S SBI RANK & TWITTER AUDIENCES 30.7 million total followers espn 14.8m abc 7.9m disney 5.6m other 2.4m the WALT DISNEY company social business index rank #2; score 2684 twitter followers 30.7 million 32 33 SOURCE: SOCIAL BUSINESS INDEX