How do we really feel about the world’s biggest billionaires? 🤑

Everyone’s talking about the “Space Race” – ie. the world’s billionaires jostling to launch themselves into the stratosphere.

It’s been a controversial subject, sparking debates on everything from capitalism to climate change.

And for that reason, I decided to analyze “billionaire sentiment”, to see what people really think.

I studied the last year’s worth of articles and Facebook reactions to content surrounding Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk.

The first thing I was surprised to see was that our overriding reaction towards the richest people on the planet is one of mirth.

We find them hilarious – Elon Musk in particular. Fifty percent of all content shared about him on Facebook has received a “haha” emoji reaction.

Our second strongest feeling is: love.

But, although we love to engage with content around Bill Gates, we definitely do not love him – far from it.

He is one of the least loved billionaires (🎻) with only 6% of all headlines published about him on Facebook receiving a heart reaction.

Another interesting point is how much we seem to love content around Richard Branson – the Founder of Virgin companies.

We added a “heart” reaction to 33% of all headlines that get shared on Facebook about him.

However, unlike all the other billionaires who appeared to be “loved” consistently throughout the year, Richard Branson usually only receives heart reactions 13% of the time.

It’s only recently that sentiment towards him has improved.

His foray into outer space has evidently done wonders for his reputation.

Building your brand rep? Just jump in a rocketship to outer space 🚀 

The people – they will ADORE you! ❤️

This month I’ve also been busy studying the engagement of 416m pieces of content in BuzzSumo, over the last year.

An “engagement” in BuzzSumo simply means: 

• Facebook likes, comments, shares & reactions
• Reddit upvotes & comments
• Pinterest pins
• Twitter retweets

The die has been cast, and it looks like infographics are all the rage this year.

Here are some examples of the most engaging infographics in that time, using the BuzzSumo Chrome Extension:

The Reading Habits Of Five Generations [infographic] – 34K engagements

In BuzzSumo, we classify this content type by mentions of the word “Infographic” in the headline, or the appearance of the specific element on the page.

It looks like we engage with articles featuring infographics 32% more than the next most engaging content (Interviews and “Why” posts).

AND 42% more than “All content” – ie. the true benchmark.

The moral of the story: If you “Infographicize” your content, you stand to generate BIG social media engagement.