Social media is on target to be a $30bn industry (per year) by 2015 and Facebook is growing faster than any site in history. It is the #1 place to have a community for a brand because it touches every single vertical across the enterprise: customer service, sales and public relations.

Let?s take a look at the 10 biggest brands on Facebook, the social content distributors and gamers like Facebook itself, Texas Hold?em Poker (Zynga) and YouTube; pop stars like Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, Eminem, Shakira, Linkin Park and Rihanna; and TV shows like Family Guy. Funnily enough, in the time it took to start writing until finishing this piece, Facebook snuck past Texas Hold?em Poker to claim the #1 spot on the chart, and Rihanna danced past Lady Gaga, thanks in part to her new sponsorship with Vita Coca.

And for expert advice, we?ve turned to Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City; Reema Mitra, an Account Supervisor at Edelman Digital; and Stuart Tracte, a Social Media Strategist at Definition 6.

1. Facebook

Mission: Facebook?s mission is to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Number of Fans: 50,929,267

Daily Growth: 157,851

Weekly Growth: 2,288,293

No surprise here: Facebook is the #1 most Liked brand on its own social network. But only 7% of nearly 700 million Facebook users are fans of the brand online, totaling 50 million fans.

What?s Hot: Facebook really keeps its followers up-to-date with company news. It uses its page to post announcements for upcoming Facebook Live sessions and any new features on the world?s largest social network. Facebook recently posted an album of ?Father?s Day Stories,? which is a great way for users to feel special being featured on the page.

And like any smart brand, Facebook points its fans to recent press, such as guides to Facebook Groups featured in The New York Times. But it also features other news like when Spotify launched in the United States. By mixing brand related content with unrelated, yet engaging content, Facebook is showing its ?human side? in social media. Of course, Spotify uses Facebook for many of its social features so it?s not completely unrelated.

Facebook?s Resources section is phenomenal. Find out how you can get involved, share your story, join the Facebook translation effort and check out what jobs Facebook is hiring for. There?s also a hefty amount of information for marketers, advertisers and developers.

What?s Not: Facebook needs to work on responding to user comments. Often the brand just posts a question or announcement and then just sits back and lets the 20,000+ comments roll in. There?s no back and forth conversation. It?s just announcement and observation. I bet Facebook could seriously up its 7% customer acquisition on its own platform with a little social media TLC. Facebook should read our 7 tips on how to be a human in social media.

I don?t understand why Facebook has so many Likes. If I want to know information about changes on FB, I?ll visit a source that leaked the info or announced it first. You know, like Twitter. I find the content extremely self-serving and uninteresting,? says Edelman?s Reema Mitra.

2. Texas Hold?em Poker

General Information: Zynga Poker is the #1 poker game in the world. Play with friends and see who?s got the best poker face or come and meet some new buddies. Help out in a poker challenge, or send daily bonus chips to friends. Don?t forget to see if you can place in the Weekly Tournament!

Number of Fans: 48,718,257

Daily Growth: 80,770

Weekly Growth: 594,076

What?s Hot: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker is one brand that doesn?t have to put much effort into its Facebook page. It?s a place where you can play poker with nearly 50 million other people on Facebook. A ?Fan of the Week? feature is coming soon, which is a great way for brands to make users feel special.

?Texas Hold?em Poker?s landing Page is a sexy redhead coyly holding some playing cards. Click through, and you?ll find the Zynga application. It?s as simple as sex and gambling ? the duo has never not been a winning combination?, says Lindsay Kaplan, a Social Marketing Expert in New York City.

What?s Not: Zynga?s Texas Hold?em Poker game is apparently the most addictive game on Facebook, yet it has one of the slowest weekly growth numbers of any other brand on this list. The page makes users jump through hoops. Mitra points out that ?Texas Hold?em?s landing tab redirects to the app which restricts access. This is probably a barrier in participation, except that it?s online poker. People want to play online. Most people would jump through the hoop to play with friends.?

3. Eminem

Likes: Bad Meets Evil, Dr Dre, D12

Number of Fans: 45,595,961

Daily Growth: 218,548

Weekly Growth: 1,961,561

What?s Hot: For big Eminem fans, it?s pretty awesome to be able to scroll through photos of the rapper with his pal?s Royce Da 5?9? & Bruno Mars ?Lighters? on set (below). Fans are also able to upload their own photos to Eminem?s wall, giving them their own 5 seconds of fame.

From an external app on his Facebook page, you can check out ?Bad Meets Evil,? his new album and watch Vevo powered music videos. One of his videos, ?I?m Not Afraid?, has a whopping 266 million views. Eminem also plays nice by posting videos by other artists and Liking other artists on Facebook like Dr. Dre and D12. It?s not exactly the same as Coca Cola liking Pepsi, but it still shows he?s supportive of the community he?s a part of.


What?s Not: Enough with the over-gamification. This one doesn?t even make sense: To promote his new album, there?s a Bad Meets Evil ?Welcome to Hell? Facebook Game? Hint: Eminem is not portrayed as a chatbot. Eminem?s page however, provides a lack of context or personality.

Mitra weighs in, ?This page is ?strictly facts? aka links of music, videos and collabs. Eminem?s page does nothing for community management in comparison. As a social media manager, I will always err on the side of creating engagement with updates vs. pushing content.?

4. YouTube

Wall: What bare-knuckled, Akron-based blues-rock band took their name from an answering machine message left by a schizophrenic artist?

a) Blues Traveler
b) The White Stripes
c) The Black Keys
d) Widespread Panic
e) The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion

Number of Fans: 43,867,379

Daily Growth: 247,393

Weekly Growth: 2,694,216

What?s Hot: Serious props to whoever manages YouTube?s Facebook account. I really dig the engagement as it?s actually valuable content. For example, YouTube posted a link to an infographic on its blog showing how YouTube users responded to videos from Democrats and Republicans on the YouTube Town Hall, then asked, ?Let us know in the comments whether you think Washington is doing a good job.? Surprisingly, only 108 people have commented since yesterday afternoon. YouTube posts photos of its internal events, such as its latest YouTube NextUp Creator Camp 2011 and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra 2011.

This past June, YouTube released its documentary length film, ?Life in a Day,? which received a massive wave of praise worldwide. [See our review here: YouTube?s Life in a Day movie is a stunner] To celebrate (and continue to promote the movie), it?s letting users create their very own Life in a Day movie poster by adding photos from Facebook and then prompting you to share those posters with your friends. Finally, YouTube?s ?Top Video? section is great for discovering trending videos and new content broken down by category like Pets, Film, Animation and Music.

What?s Not: YouTube?s Discussion section (pictured above) needs a lot of work. First, should there even be a discussion section at all? It?s just driving commentary away from the videos themselves and from YouTube?s Wall where its more visible and likely to stick. Also, aesthetically, it?s horribly uninviting.

5. Rihanna

About: LOUD!

Number of Fans: 43,862,689

Daily Growth: 208,707

Weekly Growth: 1,983,380

What?s Hot: Rihanna flew past Lady Gaga in recent weeks, likely due to her massive marketing deal with VitaCoco water and her sexy mermaid hair-do. For this partnership, Rihanna?s team is picking a Tropical Fan of the Week on her page who then receives free cases of the drink. The team also posts quotes from Rihanna on the Facebook wall such as,

??I think honesty is the ultimate liberation in life. People want to shy away from the truth and keep sweeping it under the rug. But after a while, you pick up the rug and there?s just way too much dirt, so you might as well just be up front about it.?

-Rihanna

I dig that the first thing you?re presented with on Rihanna?s page is the ability to play her new music videos in a really beautiful, purple customized YouTube player. You can easily buy and share songs from within her page, as well as browse her upcoming tour dates.

What?s Not: The fact that I just Liked her Facebook page and the song stopped. That?s not hot. Other observations: according to Kaplan, Rihanna has one of the sleeker-looking Pages in the top 10. But on closer inspection, she says, the Page lacks some aesthetic optimization. ?Rihanna is absolutely gorgeous ? it?s surprising that the Page?s photo doesn?t make use of the full 540×180 pixel specs.?