World Mayor 2023

German cities on social media

ON THIS PAGE: German cities on social media: Usage, ranking, followers ||| Years when German cities joined Twitter ||| Table: German cities on Facebook and Twitter ||| Example 1: Cologne ||| Example 2: Hamburg ||| Example 3: Berlin ||| Example 4: Frankfurt

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Mayor Honours

1 Bart Somers, Mechelen, Belgium

2 Wolfgang G Müller, Lahr, Germany

3 Georgios Kaminis, Athens, Greece

4 Guisi Nicolini, Lampedusa, Italy

5 Richard Arnold, Schwäbisch Gmünd,
Germany

6 Mirjam van 't Veld, Amstelveen Netherlands

7 Spiros Galinos, Lesbos, Greece

8 Pavel Adamowicz, Gdansk, Poland

9 Damien Carême, Grande-Synthe, France

10 Henriette Reker, Cologne, Germany

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German cities on social media:
Usage, ranking and followers
September 2017: The use of social media by German cities has become increasingly popular during the past ten years. The cities’ town halls, their marketing and tourism offices use Facebook, Twitter and other platforms to inform residents, promote tourism and investment as well as provide visitors with details of cultural and sporting events. Hamburg and Dresden were one of the first major German cities to open Twitter accounts in 2007. By 2009, cities like Munich, Bremen, Nürnberg and Münster had all signed up to the 140-character social media service. However, during the past five years, Facebook has replaced Twitter as the most popular social media platform among towns and cities in Germany.

Years German cities
joined Twitter:
In 2007: Hamburg, Dresden, Magdeburg
In 2008: Freiburg,
In 2009: Bremen, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Halle, Leipzig, Mainz, Munich, Münster, Nürnberg, Wiesbaden, Hamm, Kassel, Mülheim/Ruhr, Osnabrück, Aachen, Berlin, Bielefeld, Bonn
In 2010: Düsseldorf, Gelsenkirchen, Karlsruhe, Kiel, Krefeld, Mannheim, Mönchengladbach, Stuttgart, Hagen, Heidelberg, Herne, Ingolstadt
In 2011: Chemnitz, Essen, Darmstadt, Potsdam
In 2012: Ulm
In 2013: Cologne, Rostock, Augsburg, Bochum
In 2014: Hannover
Berlin’s principal Facebook page, with more than 1.5 million followers, is the most popular social media account run by a German city. Hamburg and Cologne rank second and third, with 726,000 and 551,000 followers respectively. Hamburg has the most popular Twitter page, with some 215,000 ‘friends’, followed by Munich and Frankfurt.

Per capita, Cologne has more Facebook followers than any other German city. Berlin and Hamburg rank second and third. Cologne’s number of Facebook followers amounts to more than 50 per cent of its population – although, of course, not all social media followers are residents. Invariably, popular tourist destinations like Berlin, Hamburg or Munich attract a considerable number of followers from across Germany and indeed the world. Cities with ratios above 20 per cent include, in addition to Cologne, Berlin and Hamburg as well as Munich, Frankfurt and Dresden but also smaller cities like Ulm, Karlsruhe and Mainz.

Most cities use their social media pages to supply municipal announcements, list events and market tourist attractions as well as business opportunities. In August / September 2017, Berlin promoted the city’s Banksy exhibition, the blind football European championship and an international beer festival. Frankfurt’s Facebook page provided extensive information for the 70,000 people who were forced to leave their homes while a WWII bomb was being defused on 3 September 2017. Hamburg’s summer festivals included a medieval jousting contest and a plastic duck race on the Alster, the city-centre lake.

German cities on Facebook and Twitter
Facebook ranking of German cities
City
Followers on Facebook
Followers on Twitter
Population
Facebook followers as percentage of population
1
 Berlin
1,583,895
23,000
3,422,000
46%
2
 Hamburg
726,388
215,000
1,746,000
42%
3
 Cologne
550,968
8,431
1,034,000
53%
4
 Munich
487,259
191,000
1,408,000
35%
5
 Frankfurt
195,557
185,000
701,000
28%
6
 Dresden
132,602
5,791
531,000
25%
7
 Dortmund
79,951
78,700
576,000
14%
8
 Stuttgart
75,696
17,200
604,000
13%
9
 Karlsruhe
70,717
5,846
295,000
24%
10
 Rostock
57,955
1,203
206,000
28%
11
 Bremen
53,420
42,200
549,000
10%
12
 Wuppertal
52,679
n/a
343,000
15%
13
 Düsseldorf
51,417
48,300
599,000
9%
14
 Mainz
46,830
7,695
210,000
22%
15
 Saarbrücken
43,521
n/a
178,000
24%
16
 Ulm
42,443
2,661
123,000
35%
17
 Kassel
39,266
6,047
198,000
20%
18
 Bonn
38,459
9,359
311,000
12%
19
 Bielefeld
30,285
4,251
329,000
9%
20
 Mannheim
29,430
1,196
297,000
10%
21
 Braunschweig
26,932
455
251,000
11%
22
 Freiburg
24,911
9,700
226,000
11%
23
 Aachen
23,696
8,888
246,000
10%
24
 Bochum
21,996
5,251
362,000
6%
25
 Hannover
21,875
10,800
518,000
4%
26
 Osnabrück
18,785
7,576
162,000
12%
27
 Ingolstadt
18,523
2,744
132,000
14%
28
 Essen
17,195
8,146
575,000
3%
29
 Nürnberg
16,274
78,900
499,000
3%
30
 Leipzig
14,285
54,100
532,000
3%
31
 Duisburg
13,884
10,100
487,000
3%
32
 Magdeburg
13,173
6,645
236,000
6%
33
 Wiesbaden
13,000
4,663
276,000
5%
34
 Augsburg
11,980
2,581
277,000
4%
35
 Erfurt
11,575
n/a
210,000
5%
36
 Oldenburg
10,750
n/a
164,000
7%
37
 Münster
10,723
702
300,000
4%
38
 Kiel
10,163
4,016
246,000
4%
39
 Hamm
9,358
n/a
179,000
5%
40
 Halle
9,313
4,117
237,000
4%
41
 Gelsenkirchen
8,886
2,419
258,000
3%
42
 Mönchengladbach
8,524
1,326
257,000
3%
43
 Heidelberg
7,794
6,354
156,000
5%
44
 Solingen
7,432
n/a
159,000
5%
45
 Hagen
7,368
1,869
189,000
4%
46
 Mülheim/Ruhr
7,144
3,020
169,000
4%
47
 Chemnitz
4,741
3,317
249,000
2%
48
 Herne
4,450
1,997
156,000
3%
49
 Oberhausen
4,374
n/a
211,000
2%
50
 Darmstadt
4,234
3,247
155,000
3%
51
 Leverkusen
4,183
n/a
165,000
3%
52
 Krefeld
3,602
1,012
225,000
2%
53
 Potsdam
3,324
3,092
168,000
2%
54
 Lübeck
2,080
n/a
216,000
1%
Note: The research was carried out in late August / early September 2017


Selections of topics covered
by German cities on Facebook
 (August / September 2017)
COLOGNE
• Online games with a twist of Cologne
• Bicycles repaired free of charge
• New owners sought for abandoned dogs
• Camescom 2017 opens in Cologne
• Church service for Cologne football club (FC Köln) in the cathedral
• Preview of German soundtrack congress ‘See the Sound’
• Photo competition – Cologne our city
• Job offers at Eurowings airline
• 55 burglaries while property owners were on holiday
• FC Köln loses its opening game of the 2017/18 football season
• How to register for postal voting for the September general elections
• Review of Cologne’s best flea markets
• Review of public day time parties
• Review of of Cologne’s Asian restaurants
• Jobs in Cologne hospitals
• Information on mobile speed cameras – where and when
• Cologne’s best coffee and cake shops


HAMBURG
• Racing plastic ducks on the Alster
• Jousting in Öjendorfer Park
• Four-day festival on Hamburg’s city centre lake, the Alster
• World finals of Beach Volleyball Finals
• Queen Mary 2 docks in Hamburg
• Café for cat lovers
• The Economist magazine ranks Hamburg as the 10th most liveable city in the world
• International one-day cycle race, Cyclassics
• Preview of Kinky Boots, the musical
• Four Siberian tiger cubs born in Hamburg zoo
• IRONMAN heat takes place in Hamburg
• TASTE – art festival
• Extreme Sailing Series takes place in Hamburg


BERLIN
• Banksy exhibition
• Weekends in Berlin
• For one night, Berlin’s museums stay open all night
• Europe’s leading youth orchestras play in Berlin
• Blind Football European Championship kicks off in Berlin
• Review of Berlin’s bathing and boating lakes
• 21st international beer festival
• Pandas in Berlin’s zoo
• Wedding venues after Germany legalised same-sex marriage


FRANKFURT
• More than 70,000 people evacuated to defuse WWII bomb
• Frankfurt helps Houston, Texas, after Hurricane Harvey
• Former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker appointed head of German men’s tennis in Frankfurt
• Chinese graffiti artists from Frankfurt’s partner city Guangzhou paint spray in Frankfurt
• Festival of Afro-Caribbean culture
• Frankfurt volunteers
• Exhibition: Children of the Stone Age
• Frankfurt’s public libraries re-open after a summer break
• Public picnic at the open-air cinema
• For security reasons, Frankfurt bans cars from annual street festival

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