Performance over time

Of the three Baltic pages, Sputnik Estonia’s Facebook page experienced the fastest follower growth since CrowdTangle, a Facebook analysis tool, began tracking it. It grew from 5,101 followers in June 2017 to 12,620 followers in September 2019, a magnitude of 1.5.

Sputnik Latvia’s Facebook page initially had 6,441 followers in June 2017, roughly 25 percent more than Sputnik Estonia’s Facebook page had at that same point in time. In December 2018, however, the latter overtook the Latvian page in terms of followers. Sputnik Lithuania’s Facebook page maintained the fewest followers over the same time period overall, growing from approximately 1,000 to 4,600 followers.

Comparison of Sputnik Facebook pages in the Baltic states’ follower growth over time, with Sputnik Estonia represented by the dark blue line, Sputnik Latvia by the teal line, and Sputnik Lithuania by the red line. (Source: @nikaaleksejeva/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

All the pages posted quite frequently, around a thousand posts per month. Sputnik Lithuania was the least active, but only by a slight margin.

Comparison of post count over time for the Sputnik Facebook pages in the Baltic states, with Sputnik Estonia represented by the dark blue line, Sputnik Latvia by the teal line, and Sputnik Lithuania by the red line. (Source: @nikaaleksejeva/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

Data exported from CrowdTangle showed that all three pages posted slightly less during first 11 months of 2019 than in all months in 2018, but they still posted more than they did in 2017. The DFRLab did not analyze activity for 2016, as each page started operating at a different point in time that year.

Comparison of average annual monthly post count in 2017, 2018, and 2019. (Source: @nikaaleksejeva/DFRLab)

While the Sputnik Lithuania page seemed to be the least popular in terms of follower count and post count, its interaction rate was the highest of the three pages. CrowdTangle’s page interaction rate is a division of total post interactions (reactions, comments, and shares) by page follower count.

Comparison of Sputnik’s Baltic state Facebook pages (Sputnik Estonia in blue; Sputnik Latvia in green; Sputnik Lithuania in red) by average monthly interaction rate. (Source: @nikaaleksejeva/DFRLab via CrowdTangle)

While Sputnik Estonia’s page follower count was growing, its content interaction rate with its existing audience declined. Sputnik Latvia’s page interaction rate over time was more variable than that of the other two pages.

Location of the most engaged audience

Most of the traffic to the Baltic Sputnik websites came from Russia.