CorpComms Magazine

Healthy food and drinks company Innocent has taken top place in this year's Social Brand 100 league table of successful social media organisations, but charities account for three of the top six positions.

The study, conducted by social media agency Headstream and social media monitoring company Brandwatch, analysed the online engagement of more than 300 brands.

It considered their ability to develop 'win win relationships', engage in 'active listening' and commitment to 'appropriate social behaviour', where their brand presence is compelling and true and acknowledges the etiquette of each community.

Starbucks and giffgaff took second and third place respectively, but the next three positions were awarded to charities Cancer Research UK, British Red Cross and free audio visual wildlife archive ARKive.

Giles Palmer, chief executive of Brandwatch, said the results demonstrated a 'lack of social media fear factor' seen in previous years, adding that not-for-profit organisations 'are leading the way because they're not afraid to be human online and to interact with real people, as real people'.

He added: 'They also take time to actually listen. With so much noise out there, brands needs to filter conversations to identify what really matters.'

The ranking took 19 factors into account, featuring a combination of metrics for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Foursquare, Google+ and blogging, and the maximum possible score was 262.5.

Ironically, technology company HTC scored highest, with 164 points, but achieved only 11^th position in the total rankings when the score from a panel of independent experts, who evaluated the shortlisted brands, was taken into account. The British Red Cross was awarded the highest panel score of 104 out of a maximum of 120.

The report found that entertainment brands generate significant reaction to content on social media platforms, and have the highest proportion of fan-generated content, but are less likely to respond to fans on Facebook and are slow to respond on Twitter.

Fast moving consumer goods and travel and leisure brands are the most prolific at responding to fans on Facebook, while media, travel and leisure and service brands are the fastest respondents on Twitter. Indeed, National Rail Enquiries ranked top on Twitter, according to the study.

All brands in the top 100 have both a Facebook and Twitter presence, while 96 per cent have a YouTube channel. However, just 18 per cent use a foursquare brand outpost, down four percentage points from 2011, and geo-location remains outside most brands' core community building strategy.

Eight of the top ten brands have a Pinterest presence, and 49 per cent have created a profile on the network. 

Top ten

1. Innocent
2. Starbucks
3. giffgaff
4. Cancer Research UK
5. British Red Cross
6. ARKive
7. Cadbury
8. ASOS
9. The Ellen DeGeneres Show/Met Office

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