The most popular Zodiac sign on social media: a social listening analysis
If you’re a millennial like me (born-in-the-90s gang, where u at?), you might have noticed that the Internet recently got into new hobbies that used to be more appropriate for your quirky aunt: plants, crafts, and weird life hacks. One of them is astrology.
Some brands have already caught up with this trend: for example, Colourpop and BH Cosmetics both released eyeshadow palettes themed around the Zodiac signs. Taking into consideration that young women probably make the most buzz on the Internet about the Zodiac, these brands really nailed their social listening strategy!
Alright, let's talk astrology. Which film characters are your sun, moon, and rising sign?
— Netflix Film (@NetflixFilm) August 14, 2019
Brands also use astrology in their social media strategies
So, as the official representative of the millennials (just please don't blame me for killing something), let me take you on a journey through social listening data so we all can learn what this new trend is all about.
Disclaimer: this blog post doesn’t argue for or against astrology, I simply analyze the conversation around it on social media. It doesn’t matter if you believe that stars affect our behaviour and character or not, but I think we can all agree that social media trends affect some people’s consumer habits, and that’s what I’m interested in.
How popular is astrology?
Overall, Awario gathered 616.5K mentions both for the Zodiac signs and for niche-specific keywords such as astrology and Zodiac(s). The alert that was set up to monitor keywords related to astrology (but not the names of the signs themselves) collected 31.6K mentions in a week.
Quite unexpectedly, the conversation around astrology is predominantly positive: 40% positive mentions vs. 15% negative.
To be honest, I expected more negative mentions expressing irritation with astrology, but seems like there are much more friends of the stars than foes (even though the word bullshit was featured 48 times). Even mentions of the Zodiac Killer didn’t tip the scales very much.
While Twitter is leading in the number of mentions, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the top 3 sources for the reach of the Zodiac mentions.
How is it possible? Well, if we look at the influential profiles which post about astrology, we will see that Instagram and Facebook are both home to some extremely popular pages which mentioned Zodiac. Hell, even the official Instagram account talked about astrology!
Top 3 most mentioned signs
Cancer: 3rd place (123.9K mentions)
If you know anything about astrology, you’ll probably be surprised that Cancer made the top 3 — they are more used to avoiding the spotlight.
If we look at the topics discussed around Cancers (Awario's Topic cloud), we see that the people are quite divided on the crab sign. Many people talk about relationships with Cancers, but they can’t decide whether these relationships are good or bad.
18,3% of mentions claim that cancers are the worst relationships they had, while 5,3% say it's the longest and 6,7% mention love alongside Cancers.
Despite this, to say the least, equivocal reputation, the number of negative mentions of Cancers is still lower than the number of positive mentions.
Fun fact: the most followed cancer on Instagram is Lionel Messi (131,547,070 followers), on Twitter - Ariana Grande (66,051,917 followers).
I’m a cancer and also triggered smh lol https://t.co/WgtwM1aadP
— Derma Essentials ? (@DermaEssentials) September 16, 2019
Gemini: 2nd place (125K mentions)
Gemini is associated with information and communication, so no wonder they are good at this whole Internet thing.
They are also supposed to talk A LOT, so I wouldn't be surprised if all these mentions came from the Geminis themselves. Or so I thought before I looked at the Topic cloud...
As you might have already guessed, a lot of the mentions around Geminis come from the cryptocurrency community, since Gemini is also the name of a digital cryptocurrency exchange.
You might also notice that Geminis are associated with bad relationships just as much as Cancers — maybe people just like to complain about their love life and use astrology as a handy excuse?
The sentiment around Gemini is surprisingly negative.
Maybe the fact that one of the most hated people on this planet is a Gemini has something to do with it.
Donald Trump’s habit of hiring people he hates, constantly talking about how much they suck, then getting too afraid to fire them is Gemini magic. a true master of duality ?
— making parents listen to 21 Guns (@ByYourLogic) September 10, 2019
Virgo: 1st place (125.3K mentions)
Considering that we just finished Virgo season, it's not surprising that Virgos got a lot of attention this last 30 days (happy belated birthday to all our Virgo readers). Even a quick look at the Topic cloud reminds us about the Virgo season: the words "happy birthday" were mentioned 715 times.
Once again, the Internet just can't seem to decide if it likes Virgos or not: 12,5% think they are the best sign while 9,6% claim that the worst relationship they had were with the Virgos.
The most followed Virgo on the Internet is Beyonce (133,902,057 Instagram followers): her incredible work ethic and sweet personality make her a poster person for Virgos everywhere.
Virgo: It’s Virgo season
— Astro Poets (@poetastrologers) September 14, 2019
Also Virgo: Your life should be in order at all times you dumb bitch
The most and least liked signs
As any Libra will tell you, being talked about a lot doesn't mean being liked.
Luckily, Awario can also help calculate which signs are liked by the Internet the most and the least.
For that, we need to count a net sentiment score — the difference between the percentage of the sign's share of positive and negative mentions (excluding the neutral mentions). As you see, this score doesn't take into consideration the number of mentions, only the ratio of the percentage of negative to positive mentions.
The good news is, there were no signs with the negative net sentiment score, which means that no sign is despised by the Internet. However, there were clear winners and losers.
The most liked signs of the Zodiac
Capricorn came first with a net sentiment score of 45%. Capricorns are not discussed a lot (only 19.7K mentions in a month) but people really seem to like their stability and ambition.
Virgo ranked second with a score of 41%. I assume that a lot of positivity came from the fact that we had a lot of Virgo birthdays this month — and logically people won't dish on Virgos on their birthday.
Sagittarius took third place with a score of 36%. Sags are considered adventurous and optimistic, so what's not to like there?
The least liked signs of the Zodiac
If you're a Gemini, please don't feel bad: to tell the truth, I think it's more likely that negative mentions of Geminis came from people complaining about their bad decisions on the cryptocurrency market. But I can't argue with harsh numbers: Gemini got the net sentiment score of 0%.
Cancer came second with a score of 18%. Yes, Cancers are sometimes seen as manipulative, emotionally stunted, passive-aggressive, but that doesn't mean that they are not loved — they are just loved a bit less by the Internet compared to other signs.
Aries is the third least liked Zodiac sign. Perhaps, not everyone can deal with their fiery energy and that's why they only got 20%.
Here's a list of all the 12 signs and how much the Internet likes them according to Awario's social listening analysis.
| Sign | Score | |
| 1 | Capricorn | 45% |
| 2 | Virgo | 41% |
| 3 | Sagittarius | 36% |
| 4 | Taurus | 32% |
| 5 | Libra | 30% |
| 6 | Pisces | 26% |
| 7 | Leo | 25% |
| 7 | Aquarius | 25% |
| 8 | Scorpio | 24% |
| 9 | Aries | 20% |
| 10 | Cancer | 18% |
| 11 | Gemini | 0% |
Best lovers and friends
Of course, being liked by the Internet is great, but let's move on to the real deal: which sign is the best partner in life, either romantic or platonic.
To calculate this, I filtered the mentions for each sign to show me positive mentions only and then counted the mentions that contained such word combinations as "best boyfriend(s)/girlfriend(s)", "best relationship(s)", and "best lover(s)" using mention search. I did the same to find the friendliest sign using combinations such as "best friendship" and "best friends".
So, once I managed to put all the Excel sheets and figures together, I finally identified best lovers and friends according to the Internet. Cue the drumroll, please...
The best Zodiac sign for friendship: Scorpio
Even though Scorpios are considered scary and intense, it seems like the Internet likes their loyalty. They got 573 positive posts which explicitly mentioned how great Scorpios are as friends.
A lot of my best friends are scorpios ☺️ I know how to pick em
— yasmine (@yazmiineeee) September 21, 2019
The best Zodiac sign for dating: Leo
The fact that I'm a Leo is a pure coincidence, I assure you. 303 people agreed that Leos are the best to be in a relationship with. One thing I've noticed is that there are generally many more mentions talking about good friendships than relationships in the astrology community. I guess people just like to complain about their exes.
My best friend my girlfriend and my brother are all leos and i feel blessed every day for them lmao https://t.co/2UXPWZ3u2K
— Julissa Garcia (@jgarcia1562) September 5, 2019
| Signs | Positive mentions related to romance | Positive mentions related to friendship |
| Aries | 116 | 393 |
| Taurus | 168 | 432 |
| Gemini | 103 | 348 |
| Cancer | 63 | 323 |
| Leo | 303 | 349 |
| Virgo | 144 | 557 |
| Libra | 161 | 458 |
| Scorpio | 150 | 573 |
| Sagittarius | 140 | 543 |
| Capricorn | 50 | 169 |
| Aquarius | 107 | 443 |
| Pisces | 102 | 369 |
Compatibility
Compatibility is a big theme in astrology: people just really want to know who they get along with based on their date of birth. Well, I wanted to know who the Internet thinks we should date. To do this, I looked at the Topic clouds for each sing once again. I deemed the sign that was mentioned the most alongside the sign of the alert their soulmate. So here's who you should date based on the social listening analysis:
- Aries - Taurus. Taurus was mentioned alongside Aries in 11% of the Aries posts, and Aries were mentioned in 16% of all Taurus posts. With this "opposites attract" scenario I could see how Tauruses' chill energy could balance out Aries' chaotic fire. The Internet is certainly onto something.
- Gemini - Aries. Maybe Aries are all just really attractive people, but 10% of all the Gemini mentions talked about Aries as well. This could be a very creative and exciting union, if not a bit tiring. Both Geminis and Aries are quite active and quick, and both don't plan to settle down, so they probably won't bore each other.
- Cancer - Pisces. 8,3% of all the Cancer mentions mentioned Pisces. Both being water signs, this love story could be quite emotional: think Romeo and Juliet but with even more crying.
- Leo - Aries. Once again, the Internet seems to think that Aries are the most compatible people ever (even though they didn't rank first as the best person to have a relationship with?). 9% of Leo mentions contained the word Aries.
- Virgo - Libra. Libras were mentioned in 10,8% of conversations related to Virgos, and Virgos were mentioned 10,5% in the Libra-themed posts, but it could also just mean that people were saying goodbye to the Virgo season and welcoming the Libra season.
- Scorpio - Pisces. Pisces got 11,5% of all the Scorpio mentions. Since both these signs are associated with supernatural and spiritual, their relationships could be best described as existential and life-changing. Seems like social media users have a taste for drama.
- Sagittarius - Scorpio. 14% of the conversations about Sags also mentioned Scorpios. I guess Scorpios will have to choose between optimistic adventurers (Sags) or soulful romantics (Pisces).
- Capricorn - Aries. 15,3% of all the people talking about Capricorns think that they should get together with Aries (yes, again).
- Aquarius - Pisces. Even though Pisces already have some options to choose from, 14,3% of social media users talking about Aquarius see them with the fish sign.
So what did we learn today? Astrology is quite popular among certain demographics, people like to complain about their relationships, and Aries is the hottest sign according to the Internet.
In all seriousness, social media data analyses can help you uncover much more than who you should date or befriend depending on your birthday. Keeping an eye on trends and analyzing them can guide your product and marketing decisions — try Awario for free and see the power behind data analysis yourself!
