Are other investors also thinking about the same stocks you're ruminating on?
These days the answer to that question is actually quantifiable by seeing which stocks have the most engagement on social media.
Of course, popularity on social media means nothing about whether those shares are worth investing in.
But it's still fascinating to see what the average person on the street is interested in.
Online broker City Index recently conducted research to come up with the 10 most popular stocks on Instagram and TikTok.
Here is what the team found:
People start investing in names they're familiar with
Predictably the list is dominated by US companies:
| Stock | Videos published | Video views (million) | Video hashtags |
| Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS) | 6,151 | 79.2 | 44,177 |
| Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) | 725 | 5.9 | 17,278 |
| Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX) | 1,384 | 13.5 | 4,635 |
| Walmart Inc (NYSE: WMT) | 297 | 4.7 | 2,570 |
| 3M Co (NYSE: MMM) | 315 | 1.65 | 2,000 |
| Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) | 312 | 1.95 | 1,944 |
| Tesla Inc (NASDAQ: TSLA) | 739 | 2 | 1,898 |
| Costco Wholesale Corporation (NASDAQ: COST) | 333 | 5.9 | 1,385 |
| Nike Inc (NYSE: NKE) | 245 | 1.3 | 1,225 |
| Starbucks Corp (NASDAQ: SBUX) | 165 | 1.7 | 725 |
Funnily enough, Instagram's parent company Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ: META) does not make the cut. TikTok owner ByteDance is privately owned.
Even though the business and the stock have endured tough times the past couple of years, Visual Capitalist strategist Marcus Lu noted Disney had the highest social media engagement of any stock via hashtags like #disneystock, #disneystocks, and #disneyshares.
"Amazon comes in second in hashtags, with 1,384 videos regarding its financial performance accompanied by hashtags such as #amazonstock, #amazonstocks, or #amazonshares," Lu wrote on VisualCapitalist.
"In its most recent earnings report, the company disclosed the addition of 5.9 million new subscribers in the second quarter of this year."
The top 10 shows potentially how a person who has never invested starts becoming interested in buying stocks.
"The companies at the top of the list — all American — are some of the biggest brands globally," said Lu.
"This underscores how the general public is most comfortable approaching the stock market through businesses and brands they are most familiar with."
