Food and drink company Innocent has been named the leader of the Social Brands 100, out today.
Online retailer Asos also appeared in the top ten, coming in at joint seventh place with Cadbury, which also sells its products from its brand website.
The Social Brands 100 is run by social brand agency Headstream in partnership with social media monitoring company Brandwatch .
“It feels like not a day goes by without a new ‘game changing’ platform or technology appearing, and it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that it is people who are at the heart of social media,” said Steve Sponder, head of agency at Headstream. “The brands in this ranking have found some of the best ways so far to become part of the ‘people’s media’ in a transparent and compelling way.”
Some 300 brands were nominated for the index in a crowdsourced nomination process, which took place on Twitter this January. Each brand’s social performance was measured for the Social Brands 100, which assessed how each brand built two-way relationships with its community. The ranking took into account how companies listened to their customers and whether they behaved in an appropriate manner in social spaces.
Industry experts from Google, Twitter, PwC, the IAB and IPA contributed to the scoring.
“Defining a brand as ‘social’ can be both complex and subjective,” said Giles Palmer, chief executive of Brandwatch. “Every brand is different and customers want to interact with them in different ways. This year we have been able to dig deeper than ever before into our data to analyse brand and consumer interaction at a per post level.”
The Social Brands 100 report also found a 4% drop in the use of foursquare since 2011, and that charities and not-for-profit organisations represented more than 25% of the top twenty brands. Some 49% of the brands had joined Google+, while the same proportion were present on Pinterest. However, technology brands were the main users of YouTube.
Companies shortlisted for the Social Brands 100 will be celebrating the results at an event to be held later today in London. A panel discussion featuring some of the brands and judges can be followed on Twitter @socialbrands100, using hashtag #sb100.
Social Brands 100 Top Ten
1. Innocent
2. Starbucks
3. Giffgaff
4. Cancer Research UK
5. British Red Cross
6. ARKive
7. Cadbury/ASOS
9. The Ellen DeGeneres Show/The Met Office
