How St. Jude became the most-loyal brand on Facebook

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital isn’t just the brand with the most loyal following on Facebook, according to social research firm Louddoor. It is by a mile.

Louddoor based its list on what it calls a “Net Promoter Score,” which it calculates from surveys of Facebook fans. St. Jude’s score was 77.8. The next-highest brand was Facebook with 66.6.

How exactly did St. Jude pull that off? John Avola, senior liaison for interactive marketing, social, and mobile, says it’s all about giving as much as you get.

“I honestly believe, being in the social realm every day, loyalty really is a two-way street,” he says. “We at St. Jude are just as loyal back to our fans as they are to us.”

What’s particularly interesting about St. Jude’s rise to the top of the Facebook loyalty rankings is that it got there without gimmicks or jokes. The brand sticks to a “straightforward, but uplifting” tenor, Avola says, and it works.

‘Un-marketing’