Ever wonder who is really “working it” on social media? Whether rated by popular online review sites Yelp – or amassing “likes” on Facebook by the thousands – what local businesses and organizations are making the biggest splashes in social media these days?

The Ticker took a look at Facebook, Yelp, TripAdvisor and Instagram and here’s what we discovered.

First In Facebook
When it comes to local organizations or businesses that capture the most Facebook fans, news leads the way.

UpNorthLive boasts 88,039 “likes” and Grand Traverse 911 (32,522 “likes”) are two of the top five Facebook sites as measured by fans. Grand Traverse 911 gets bonus points for its sense of humor – whether posting about inclement weather, traffic tie-ups or animals on the run – in keeping people informed with a pun (intended) or clever play on words.

The other three top sites all have to do with tourism: Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, 83,766; Traverse City Tourism 67,071 – both which prove a picture is worth a thousand likes (and then some) with beautiful photos – and this week’s biggest celebration, the National Cherry Festival, with nearly 52,000 fans.

Top “Yelpers”
When people head to Yelp to find the most recommended places to eat in Traverse City, they find hundreds of reviews for dozens of places. But who comes out on top?

The Traverse City restaurants with the highest percentage of positive reviews (all with 4.5 out of 5 stars) are:

Trattoria Stella … “In the running for the best place in the state.”
The Cooks’ House … “Pig tails and porridge, anyone? (it was a smoky, savory delight).”
The Filling Station Microbrewery … “It was probably one of the best pizzas I have ever had.”
The Towne Plaza … “Awesome, awesome, awesome pork belly dishes.”
Grand Traverse Pie Company … “These pies are legendary for a reason.”

What do TripAdvisor reviewers say about great food finds in Leelanau County? The Village Cheese Shanty in Leland comes out on top, followed by 9 Bean Rows in Suttons Bay, Blu in Glen Arbor, La Becasse in Maple City and Glen Arbor’s Cherry Republic Grand Café.

As Seen On Instagram
Who's following who on Instagram? Downtown TC has one of the most popular accounts, with 5,058 followers. Traverse City Tourism has 3,489 followers, Sleeping Bear Dunes has 1,290 and TC Beach Bums has 1,886. Another interesting fact? At last look, there were 115,441 photos on Instagram captioned with a Traverse City hash tag. As a comparison, Ann Arbor appears in 290,167 posts, Grand Rapids in 324,770 and Detroit, 4.2 million.

By the way, we're small but gaining quickly! The Ticker has grown from fewer than 2,000 Facebook "likes" a year ago to more than 8,200 today.