Campaign Viral Chart: Facebook debuts as social network reaches 1bn users

A blog post by Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg explains that the ad intends to honor the "rich tradition of people making things that bring us together".

The ad was the sixth most shared this week, with just under 89% of its all-time share total coming from within Facebook itself.

In first place, an ad for Ahston Bikes, created in-house, enjoyed a late boom in shares.

The ad, shared nearly 280,000 and viewed more than 1.6 million times, has been featured in 115 blog posts and generated 1,647 comments.

Red Bull and mobile games developer Rovio add two further in-house creations to the top three, each shared more than 95,000 times.

Last week's most-shared ad, a political viral in support of President Obama, starring Samuel L. Jackson, slipped out of the chart, securing only 29,821 shares this week - a 94% decrease week on week.

To view the most-shared viral ads from previous weeks, visit the Brand Republic viral video board on Pinterest.

The chart, produced in conjunction with Unruly, ranks ads according to the number of times they have been shared on Facebook, Twitter and the blogosphere.

Ads launched more than 30-days ago are not included.

1. Ashton Bikes 'road bike party' created in-house 279,329 shares this week All time: 344,504 shares

2. Red Bull 'human-powered free running machine' created in-house 99,764 shares this week All time: 113,421 shares

3. Rovio 'Angry Birds Star Wars' created in-house 96,562 shares this week All time: 103,418 shares

4. Samsung 'introducing Galaxy Note II' by Cheil 88,552 shares this week All time: 111,729 shares

5. Romney/Ryan '12 million jobs' by Romney For President, Inc. 85,256 shares this week All time: 86,247 shares

6. Facebook 'the things that connect us' by Wieden & Kennedy 77,759 shares this week All time: 90,859 shares

7. Expedia 'find your understanding' by 180 LA 73,659 shares this week All time: 101,336 shares

8. Romney/Ryan 'we can't afford four more years' by Romney For President, Inc. 67,425 shares this week All time: 68,206 shares

9. Water Is Life 'first world problems anthem' by DDB 49,817 shares this week All time: 61,583 shares

10. Febelfin 'mind reader' by Duval Guillame Modem 43,425 shares this week All time: 641,315 shares

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This article was first published on campaignlive.co.uk