Social Media Brand Top 100

7/31/2019 Social Media Brand Top 100

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SOCIAL

BRANDS100

The Social Brand Agency

2012


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FOREW0RD

In the frenetic world of socialmedia, where it can seem thata game changing platform ortechnology is announced daily,it can be easy to lose sight ofwhats at the centre of it all:the people.

Thats all the people in socialspaces, including those who areworing hard to represent brandsthere if youre reading thisreport you may well be in thatsecond category?

Whatever the size or complexityof the brand, whatever thebusiness objective, the corechallenge is the same; as a brand,how do I become part of thepeoples media in a transparent,authentic and compelling way?

Our aim in creating Social Brands100 is to help all brand ownersby providing a robust benchmarof social performance that spanssectors, and dierent types ofcompany. It is our contributionto the important ongoing worto see better analytics andmeasurement of social mediaseectiveness.

The 100 brands raned herehave found some of the bestways so far, and we are delightedto be able to recognise them.These brands are the innovators,the pioneers, and where they goothers follow.

We hope you nd inspirationwithin, and enjoy, 2012s SocialBrands 100.

Steve Sponder

Head of Agency,Headstream

C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 2 L a w t o n C o m m u n i C a t i o n s g r o u p L t d 4 & 5 g r o s v e n o r s q u a r e , s o u t h a m p t o n s o 1 5 2 B e


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CONTENTS

6 About Social Brands 100

8 What is a Social Brand?

10 Methodology

12 Judging Panel

14 The Raning

18 Insights

18 What we've learned

22 By platform

24 By marer

26 Historical trends

27 Social's growth

28 The big issues

30 Case Studies

30 Innocent: A personal approach

32 ARkive: Conservation through conversation

33 Manchester City FC: Top of the social league

34 AVG: Using advocacy to build a better a brand

35 Schuh: Maintaining the human touch

36 What next?

38 Appendix

48 Acnowledgements

50 About Headstream

52 Glossary


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ABOUT SOCIAL BRANDS 100

The idea for Social Brands 100

was born in 2011 as an initiativeto identify and acnowledgethose brands leading the way inthe social age. Now in its secondyear, Social Brands 100 hasestablished a position as one ofthe leading ranings of socialmedia performance.

Brands cannot apply or pay to

be considered in the raning. Theonly way to participate is througha crowdsourced nominationprocess on Twitter. The brandsnominated @SocialBrands100 arethen put through a rigorous andindependent judging process.

Woring with analysts at socialmedia monitoring companyBrandwatch, and a team ofresearchers, Social Brands 100assesses hundreds of thousandsof interactions in social spacesbetween the nominated brandsand individuals. An expert panelof judges adds its collectiveopinion to determine thenal raning.

The result isnt intended to be a

denitive list of the best. Rather,its a collection of brands thatstrive to be better every day,through every interaction.

Social Brands 100 is createdand led by social brand agencyHeadstream.

Social Brands 100 can alsohelp brands benchmar socialperformance against bespoecompetitor sets.

For more information, [email protected]

@Fl4

@SocialBrands100Thanks very

much. Cant wait to see whether wemake the list. Its like the Oscars ofbrands on twitter!#suspense #sb100


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WHAT IS A SOCIAL BRAND?

A social brand is one thathas adopted three importantunderlying principles.

With the increase in transparencybrought on by social mediacomes a requirement forbrands to focus on equitableand fair value exchange with allstaeholders. Brands cannotsimply communicate a betterbrand, they must strive to beone. This can result in brandsprioritising the needs of theirstaeholders ahead of theirown immediate requirements.

This is the act of monitoring thesocial web to uncover relevantconversations, and then havingthe capability and resources toact on what is found in a timelymanner. This can extend fromcommunity management,to business planning, andeverything in between.

This is a commitment to providea consistent brand presence insocial spaces that is compelling,true, authentic and transparent,and that acnowledges theetiquette of each particularcommunity.

A brand that has adopted theseprinciples, and delivers themconsistently and well, createspowerful eects amongstcommunities in social spaces. It isthese eects, identiable througha series of observable marersthat our methodology is designedto identify, and measure.

This methodology ensures thatthe community is the mostimportant judge of how gooda brand is at creating win-winthrough the value it oers andthe way it behaves in social.

This is crucial because theresult of win-win, listening, andappropriateness, is to build acommunity (not in one place buta diaspora distributed acrossnetwors and platforms) witha mutual interest in the brand.

This community spirit is thefoundation stone of socialsuccess. The greater the sense ofsolidarity and identication withthe brand, the more liely thatthose most powerful of feelingswill follow advocacy, loyaltyand love.

1 WIN-WIN RELATIONSHIPS 2 aCtive Listening 3 APPROPRIATEsoCiaL Behaviour


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METHODOLOGY

Creating a methodology thatprovides a level playing eld foranalysis across the many dierentsectors, types, and size ofcompanies that are nominatedfor Social Brands 100 is ourprime concern.

This principle is baed-in to thetwo separate elements of thescoring, the Data Score and thePanel Score, which combine tocreate the overall Social BrandScore that rans theshortlisted 100.

This is arrived at by measuringobservable marers in socialspaces that indicate strong socialperformance. These marersare the external evidence thata brand is adopting the socialprinciples of win-win relationships,active listening and appropriatesocial behaviour.

We are not in the game ofscoring brands for the volumeof mentions (buzz) around theirname or associated terms.Similarly, the size of communitye.g. followers on Twitter, FacebooFans, is used to normalise thescores, to allow large and smallorganisations to be comparedfairly with large ones.

We loo at 19 separateobservable marers acrossFaceboo, Twitter, YouTube,foursquare, Google+, brandowned forums, brand websitesand brand blogs.

While the marers are varied,they all share a common purpose;to measure the intensity ofinteractions between the brandand the individuals who mae upthe brands community. Taentogether, these indicate howsuccessfully each brand usessocial media to create a vibrantcommunity.

The diagram on the right providesan overview of each of the 19observable marers. Furtherdetails on the behaviour eachmarer measures can be found inthe Appendix.

The total available points from thedata score were 262.5.

DATA SCORE

overview oF the 19 oBservaBLe markers

FaCeBook TWITTER

YOUTUBE

Foursquare

GOOGLE+

BRAND BLOG

BRAND WEBSITE

BRAND-OWNED FORUM

Brand post engagement

Fan post : Brand post ratio

Fan post engagement

Fan posts interacted with by brand

Blog usage

Comment to post ratio

Outpost lins

Outpost lin visibility

Posts per thread

All @brand mentions

Retweets

Timeliness of response

Mentions of third party @accounts by @brand

Average views per video

Average comments per video

Tips done

+1s per post

Shares per post

Comments per post


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51 Domino's Pizza Travel & Leisure 115 78 193

51 Tate Travel & Leisure 115 78 193

53 B&Q Retail 116 76 192

53 Muddy Boots Real Foods FMCG 113 79 192

55 Motorola Technology 128 62 190

55 WestJet Travel & Leisure 133 57 190

57 The Collective NZ FMCG 110 79 189

58 O2 Telecom 113 75 188

59 Dell Technology 112 75 187

60 Lush Fashion and Beauty 114 70 184

60 Mobile Viings Telecom 127 57 184

62 Chiltern Railways Travel & Leisure 122 60 18262 Mr & Mrs Smith Travel & Leisure 118 64 182

62 Southwest Airlines Travel & Leisure 116 66 182

65 Groupon Services 117 64 181

65 Intel Uk Technology 128 53 181

65 Virgin Money Financial Services 127 54 181

68 MaxiRAW FMCG 142 38 180

68 Mongoose Cricet Manufactured goods 127 53 180

70 MTV Geordie Shore Media 129 50 179

71 Orange Telecom 112 66 178

71 RAF Benevolent Fund Charity 117 61 178

71 Virgin Atlantic Travel & Leisure 111 67 178

71 VisitWoods Charity 112 66 178

75 HMV Retail 114 61 175

rank Brand industry data sCore paneL sCore soCiaL Brand sCore*

76 Bing Uk Technology 130 44 174

76 e.l.f. Cosmetics Fashion and Beauty 127 47 174

78 Sony Ericsson (Xperia) Technology 137 36 173

78 Very.co.u Retail 117 56 173

80 Delta Travel & Leisure 126 46 172

81 Google Technology 125 46 171

81 Virgin Trains Travel & Leisure 118 53 171

83 studentbeans.com Services 110 60 170

84 Comcast Telecom 126 42 168

84 Samsung Mobile Technology 128 40 168

86 Just Giving Charity 118 49 167

86 MTV Uk Media 118 49 16788 Simplyhealth Financial Services 123 42 165

89 The National Lottery Charity 110 53 163

89 Walers Crisps FMCG 125 38 163

91 Frugi Retail 112 50 162

92 Estee Lauder Fashion and Beauty 111 49 160

92 Oral B FMCG 119 41 160

94 CenturyLin Telecom 121 38 159

95 Acura Automotive 131 26 157

96 Ribena FMCG 117 38 155

97 PayPal Financial Services 113 41 154

98 Tropicana FMCG 110 34 144

99 AT&T Telecom 110 33 143

100 BullGuard Technology 113 20 133

rank Brand industry data sCore paneL sCore soCiaL Brand sCore*

*Th e to ta l avai la bl e po in ts from th e da ta sco re and pan el sco re i s 382.5 *Th e to ta l avai la bl e po in ts from the data score an d pane l score is 382 .5


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As with Twitter, there is greatupside potential for brands whenit comes to Google+, YouTube,Foursquare and brand ownedforums. On each of theseplatforms the mean scores arewell below the total possible,and there were large dierencesbetween the best and worstperformers.

On YouTube, the Technologysector proved the mostconsistent performer with theregular use of the platform foruser guides and applicationideas. Selected Travel & Leisureand FMCG brands also used theplatform eectively to sharestories about their products andservices. For the top ten brandson this platform, this provided asignicant uplift in points scored,giving an average of 29 points,compared to a 16-point averagefor YouTube across the 100.

Google+ wasnt in existence forlast years Social Brands 100,but in ten months it has movedrapidly to get on the radar ofbrands operating in social spaces.

Unsurprisingly it is some of thearchetypal early adopters ofsocial media that have risen tothe top of the Google+ ranings,and Technology companies areprevalent here. The observablemarers used for Google+ areall about engagement, so thesebrands are oering the mostcompelling content, and eectivecommunity management onthe platform.

Amongst brand owned forumsthe Entertainment brands werethe most highly rated, with forumsthat provide comprehensivebrand and peer support, or thatprovide a platform for lie-minded communities to gather.The community and interactionprovided by these forums oersa counter to the observed lac ofintensive conversation betweenEntertainment brands andindividuals on Twitter.

The chart on the right shows thegap between current mean scoresamongst the Social Brands 100on the major platforms, and thehighest possible scores.

OTHER PLATFORMSSOCIAL BRANDS 100 PERFORMANCE ON TWITTER soCiaL Brands 100 mean perFormanCe By pLatForm vs. totaL possiBLe sCore

Upper Q4

Upper mid Q3

Lower mid Q2

Lowest Q1

90.00

80.00

70.00

60.00

50.00

40.00

30.00

20.00

10.00

FaCeBook TWITTER YOUTUBE GOOGLE+ Foursquare OWN FORUMS

O ve ra ll mea n To ta l po ss ib le s co re

INSIGHTS INSIGHTS


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BY PLATFORM

The following tables show thetop ten performing brands inthis years Social Brands 100across each of Faceboo,Twitter, YouTube, Google+,and foursquare.

rank Brand industry

1 MaxiRAW FMCG

2 Trent Barton Travel & Leisure

3 RSPB Charity

4 Cardi bus Travel & Leisure

5 Orange Telecom

6 Chiltern Railways Travel & Leisure

7 CenturyLin Telecom

8 Met Oce Services

9 Mobile Viings Telecom

10 AVG Technology

rank Brand industry

1 Acura Automotive

2 Google Technology

3 The Ellen DeGeneres Show Entertainment

4 Manchester City Football Club Travel & Leisure

5 Guinness World Records Media

6 giga Telecom

7 AVG Technology

8 GoPro Technology

9 Sony Ericsson (Xperia) Technology

10 Samsung Mobile Technology

rank Brand industry

1 Starbucs Travel & Leisure

2 Intel Uk Technology

3 WWE Entertainment

4 kLM Travel & Leisure

5 National Trust Charity

6 Bing Uk Technology

7 HMV Retail

8 Fifteen Cornwall Travel & Leisure

9 Blacberry Technology


top 10 FaCeBook TOP 10 YOUTUBE top 10 Foursquare

rank Brand industry

1 National Rail Enquiries Services

2 Tetley FMCG

3 MTV Geordie Shore Media

4 Oral B FMCG

5 Capital FM Media

6 BBC Media


8 Motorola Technology

9 MTV Uk Media

10 Leicester Tigers Rugby Club Travel & Leisure

TOP 10 TWITTERrank Brand industry

1 Red Bull FMCG

2 Google Technology

3 Blacberry Technology

4 Intel Uk Technology

5 Starbucs Travel & Leisure

6 Cadbury FMCG

7 Ford Automotive

8 WWE Entertainment

9 Sony Ericsson (Xperia) Technology

10 Samsung Mobile Technology

TOP 10 GOOGLE +

INSIGHTS INSIGHTS


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INSIGHTS INSIGHTS

rank Brand industry

1 MaxiRAW FMCG

2 road.cc Media


4 The Ellen DeGeneres Show Entertainment


6 Gibson Manufactured goods

7 RSPB Charity

8 Penguin Uk Media

9 RAF Benevolent Fund Charity

10 Leicester Tigers Rugby Club Travel & Leisure

rank Brand industry

1 O2 Telecom

2 HTC Technology

3 Met Oce Services

4 WestJet Travel & Leisure

5 Virgin Trains Travel & Leisure

6 Xbox Entertainment


8 WWE Entertainment


10 MTV Uk Media

rank Brand industry

1 Schuh Retail

2 The Collective NZ FMCG

3 AVG Technology

4 Virgin Money Financial Services

5 Orange Telecom


7 MaxiRAW FMCG


9 Cardi bus Travel & Leisure


rank Brand industry


2 ASOS Retail

3 MTV Geordie Shore Media

4 Marie Curie Cancer Care Charity

5 BBC Media

6 Virtuous Bread Travel & Leisure

7 Oral B FMCG

8 studentbeans.com Services

9 Met Oce Services


FaCeBook BRAND POST ENGAGEMENT TWITTER MENTIONS OF THIRD PARTY @ACCOUNTS BY @BRAND

FaCeBook FAN POSTS INTERACTED WITH BY BRAND TWITTER TIMELINESS OF RESPONSE

By marker

The following tables show thetop ten performing brandsagainst a selection of ourobservable marers.


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SOCIAL'S GROWTH

Social networ user numbershave exploded. Establishedplayers are going from strengthto strength and newcomerslie Pinterest, Instagram andGoogle+ are growing fast. This isa brief loo at how the networsmeasured in the raning haveevolved over the last year.

2011 q1: 500 miLLion users

2012 q1: 901 miLLion users

The worlds biggest socialnetwor has experienceddramatic growth and isnt slowingdown. New features lie Timelineprove Faceboo isnt complacentand with 1 billion users expectedby August 2012, it will remain aforce to be reconed with.

2011 q1: 200 miLLion ra*2012 q1:500 miLLion ra*

The information networ isnow part of millions of peopleslives due to its prominent useby journalists and celebrities.Twitters current focus is onmonetising the platform, with aredesign and new features thatappeal to brands.

* Registered accounts

2011 q1: 490 miLLion mau**2012 q1: 800 miLLion mau**

With 3 billion hours of videoviewed each month, YouTubeis one of the most popular andestablished networs. Googlesmost successful social serviceowns the web video space andcontinues to grow in numbers andsocial features.

** Monthly active users

2011 q1: 102 miLLion users2012 q1: 151 miLLion users

LinedIn was one of the rst tolaunch its IPO and is positionedas the place for recruitment andprofessional networing. Growthin users has been comparativelysmall, but with ey purchases andimprovements to its core product,expect gures to grow.

2011 q1: June LaunCh2012 q1: 170 miLLion users

Google is constantly upgradingits new networ and baing itinto its web products to ensuresuccess, something proving bothcontroversial and benecial inequal amounts.

2011 q1: 10 miLLion users2012 q1: 20 miLLion users

Foursquare has doubled itsuser base, has a dedicatedglobal community and seen oother threats. Its use of data topower new features and otherapplications location featuresshows some of the platformspotential.

In summary, 2012 so far has beenone of the biggest years for thesocial restructuring of the web.Faceboo's IPO, its $1 billionpurchase of Instagram, Googlesrestructure around social, andthe lies of Apple and Microsoftembedding social networs intotheir products are all evidence ofsocial's impact.

HISTORICAL TRENDS

While Faceboo and Twitterenjoyed 100% adoption amongstthe Social Brands 100 and

YouTube 96%, all slightly higheryear-on-year, 2012 was reallyabout geo-location failing totae o.

Only 18% of the Social Brands100 use a foursquare brandoutpost, a gure down from lastyears 22%. Those brands that areactive on foursquare lie Intel andNational Geographic are creatinggood interaction, however formost it remains outside their corecommunity building strategy.

Interesting new entrants thisyear are Google+, which with49% adoption is already well

ahead of foursquare. While wedidnt analyse data results fromPinterest in this years raning wenote that 49% of the 100 brandshave created a prole on theimage driven interest networ,including eight out of our topten brands.

Twitter 99%

Faceboo 94%

YouTube 83%

Brand community 31%

foursquare 22%

PERCENTAGE BRAND ADOPTION OF PLATFORMS 2012

PERCENTAGE BRAND ADOPTION OF PLATFORMS 2011

Twitter 100%

Faceboo 100%

YouTube 96%

Brand community 28%

foursquare 18%

FaCeBook

TWITTER Linkedin Foursquare

GOOGLE+

INSIGHTS INSIGHTS

YOUTUBE

Sources: Faceboo, Mashable,YouTube, LinedIn, Google, foursquare


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Putting this number of brandsunder the social performancemicroscope provides anopportunity to reect on what isworing for them, and what thechallenges ahead might be.

In terms of the behaviours thatcreate success in social, theyremain consistent, becausepeople and how they lie to betreated remain consistent. Insummary those behaviours are:

Focus on creating value forpeople and communities, notsending messages

Be happy to exchange rigidbrand control for greaterinvolvement with people

Manage the brand in a morehuman context, focus on thespirit of the brand, its character,values, purpose and causes,rather than the letter of thebrand guidelines

Listen actively and be timely,agile and responsive tomae the most of emergingconversations

Act appropriately, reectingthe etiquette of each socialenvironment

Put the needs of thecommunity, and individualswithin it, ahead of your own

Be true, compelling, authenticand transparent

Place win-win relationships atthe heart of your business.

keeping these behaviours in mindduring every interaction, strategyplanning session and objectivessetting exercise, will direct anybrand towards better social mediaperformance.

This appears to be the greatestchallenge for brands in social.

Expressing the brand witha truly human voice, on aconsistent basis and within largecommunities is a big challengethat only a handful of brands aremeeting. This poses the question:are brands simply wrestling withthe challenge of scaling-up inthis area, or is there a lac ofgenuine appetite to engage atthis personal level?

Our observation is that brandsembracing this human approachare willing to invest emotionallyin their communities, and createstrong one-to-one relationships.This is in contrast to brands thatmay have regular conversationand response but where theinteractions are standard andsuggest a scripted, brandguidelines focused approach.

To meet the challenge ofdelivering personal value atscale, brands will have to investin larger teams of socially savvyemployees. These individualswill be clear on the purpose orspirit of the brand and will beempowered to represent thebrand with a human voice.

At its heart a commitment isrequired from brands to spendmore time being interested, ratherthan trying to be interesting.

Here are a few questions to asyourself if you are involved inrepresenting a brand in socialspaces:

Are you joining conversationsconsistently and positively,or do you only step in when anegative emerges?

When you place a new threadinto the conversation how doyou frame it? Do you as open

questions to invite response, ordo you announce content in atraditional broadcast way?

Are you spending at leastas much time listening andresponding as you are runningyour own content plan?

Are you open-minded andagile enough to capitalise on astrong emerging meme in thecommunity, rather than stic toa content schedule?

In what remain challenging globaleconomic times, one big questionremains at the top of everyMareting Directors agendaaround social How do I showthat social spend is eective, andprovides return on investment?

Social Brands 100 is committedto helping answer that questionby developing its research infuture years to cover brandobjectives and outcomesfrom social activity, as well asthe outputs that are coveredcurrently.

In the meantime, we will leave youwith an observation.

Good active listening, asing openquestions, and trying to uncoverand then respond to genuinecustomer need uses many of theaccepted fundamentals of goodselling techniques. The dierenceis that we now have the ability tolisten and learn not just in face-to-face interactions with customersor prospects, but persistentlyacross all social platforms.

The aggregated intelligencegathered from this listening isextremely powerful. It can helpbrands get ahead of what themaret wants in terms of productand service, and provide insightinto what proposition will resonatewith the community.

Used smartly this data is agoldmine that can transformbusiness performance. Thats astory every boardroom is eento hear.

THE BIG ISSUES

deLivering personaLvaLue - at sCaLe

INSIGHTS INSIGHTS

the no.1 question


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innoCent: a personaL approaCh

CASE STUDY

Since its launch a little overa decade ago, Innocent hasstood out for its innovativeand entertaining approach tocommunications. Although weare now used to having ourpacaging tal to us, bac when

Innocents bottles rst appearedon supermaret shelves coveredin distinctive illustrations andirreverent copy a by-product ofhaving no budget for a traditionaladvertising campaign at the time it was radical.

Innocent is a food and drinscompany whose products areavailable across Europe.

Signicantly, the bananaphonenumber, Innocent's customerhelp-line, has always beenincluded on labels, with anopen invitation to get in touchwith Fruit Towers. Wevealways wanted to build actual

relationships with our driners,says Innocents Joe McEwan. Itstarted with taling to people onour pacaging, inviting them tocall the bananaphone, meetingthem at events we put on, andso on. It naturally extended intodigital and then social media asthose channels evolved.

So from the beginning Innocentsvalues have been rooted inwhat is now recognised asgood social behaviour, taing ahuman approach to managingthe brand, creating value for,and listening and responding to

people. Maintaining this approachin the face of signicant growth,inevitable changes to the teamline-up, and a rapidly evolvingcommunications landscapehowever, is no mean tas.According to McEwan, ey toInnocents success has beena consistent tone of voice one that's natural, honest, andengaging maing social activityfeel lie a natural extension of thecompanys personality.

The Innocent approach to socialhas historically been quiteorganic, changing as the teamexperiments with new ideas andtypes of content. Over the lastyear in particular, theres beenrecognition internally that social

should be integrated across thebusiness more formally, striinga balance between a healthydegree of spontaneity and amore strategic approach, saysMcEwan. One result has beencloser collaboration with thein-house creative department.Following a session ahead of StGeorges Day, the team createdand shared An Innocent Guide toSlaying a Dragon. Success hingeson having a Brazil nut to hand, incase youre wondering.

As they continue to experimentwith the potential of emergingplatforms, the Community Teamis eeping an eye on how to bestdevelop each ones own looand feel while maintaining thatall-important consistency. ForMcEwan, a dedicated in-houseteam is essential to Innocentsfuture success to ensure thebusiness eeps learning anddevelops the deepest possiblerelationship with its communities.

In an ever-changing sociallandscape, Innocent maintainsa exible and creative approachunderpinned by a clearunderstanding of the spirit of thebrand, passion for the product,and a desire to engage withpeople on a one-to-one level.

ranking: 1

data sCore: 139

paneL sCore: 99

soCiaL Brand sCore: 238

Weve always

wanted tobuild actualrelationshipswith ourdrinkers.


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CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

Faceboo may have brandsthining about fans lie neverbefore, but they have always beenthe lifeblood of football clubs.With devotees around the globe,engaging through social mediahas been an opportunity forsome quic wins for clubs in thePremier League.

The nature of professional sportsis such that theres an obviouslin between new fan uptaeand success on the pitch, soManchester City Football Club hasseen numbers grow as it has risenthrough the league table thisyear, becoming Premier Leaguechampions for the rst time in44 years.

Manchester City Football

Club won the Premier Leaguechampionship in May 2012.

Within top ten brands overallon Twitter, YouTube andfoursquare.

Top Five for brand postengagement on Faceboo.

The social media teams objectiveis to engage with new fans andgive them even more reasonsto stay loyal, while deepeningrelationships with life-longsupporters. Because its football,its tribal and passionate, saysManchester Citys Chris Nield.We need to be lie a mate to ourfans there to listen and help.

The Club relaunched its websitein July 2010 with social mediafully integrated into the site. It hascontinued to improve functionalitysince then and developed avariety of content, hosting livechats on Twitter with the players,livestreaming training sessions,creating videos for its YouTubechannel, and displaying moderatedtweets on the big screen beforeand after games. Weve alsogot proles up and running onInstagram and Pinterest, saysNield. We do dierent things onthese niche platforms and wontexpect big numbers but its goodto be there getting to now a reallyinterested and educated fanbase.

This summer Manchester Citywill be getting involved with thefestival circuit, releasing an appthat celebrates the citys musicalheritage. Users can downloadtracs by local bands, remix them,and share with friends. This willgive fans something to engagewith while they wait for the newfootball season to start,says Nield.

Further aeld, Nield will beworing with micro-blogging siteWeibo for the rst time, as theteam starts a pre-season tour inChina a good reminder aboutthe distinctive nature of socialmedia in some countries.

Its approach to social mediahas enabled Manchester Cityto deepen its relationship withdie-hard supporters, connectwith a diverse base of new fans,and most importantly, to lay thegroundwor to retain them forthe future.

manChester City FC: top oF the soCiaL League

ranking: 16

data sCore: 132

paneL sCore: 84


ARkive, the vast and free audio-visual wildlife archive, aims toinspire a global community withits virtual conservation eort.

Content is at the top of manya brands agenda and ARkivecertainly has no shortage,with more than 3,500 of theworlds leading lmmaersand photographers actively

contributing material. However,as is often the case, its not whatyouve got but what you do with itthat counts.

According to ARkives Ellie Dart,social is fundamentally aboutconversation for the brand. Oneof the coolest things for us is thatwe can have a natter with peoplearound the world as individuals,not just a mass of lies ortweeps, she says.

ARkive is a digital library ofthe world's species run bycharity Wildscreen.

No. 1 charity brand for overallperformance on platforms.

By engaging in discussion anddebate on a variety of platforms,the team gains insights into whatpeople want, whether thats newsabout the worlds rarest wildcator a short lm of sleepy meeratsdozing o at the post.

In February, ARkive asedpeople to tweet the name oftheir favourite species along with

#lovespecies and several well-nown Uk wildlife personalitiesgot involved including MarCarwardine and Liz Bonnin.ARkive complemented this Twitteractivity with a Love SpeciesValentines Quiz on Faceboo,which tested players nowledgeof dierent species more unusualmating habits.

The challenge ahead lies ineeping up with the launch ofnew social platforms. Along withPinterest and the rise of socialTV, Dart is eeping an eye ontwo new platforms in particular;Chime, which is organised aroundcommon interests and aims to

share advertising revenue withits users, and SceneChat.com,which enables social interactionson video.

The growing number of platformshas made analysis moreimportant than ever, and as socialmedias inuence on SEO hasincreased, platforms have beenbetter integrated into the ARkive

website.

By engaging with people in theright places and listening towhat they want, social mediais enabling ARkive to engagecreatively with dierent groupsand raise the prole of themany thousands of endangeredspecies to ultimately ensure theirconservation.

One thing will denitely remain apriority in the year ahead; Lastyear social media was aboutconversation; this year socialmedia is about conversation,says Dart.

arkive: Conservation through Conversation

ranking: 6

data sCore: 145

paneL sCore: 87



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CASE STUDY CASE STUDY

We now its important andwe now we need to have it,but anti-virus software doesntautomatically feel lie the mostengaging of subjects, maingAVGs Toothpics versus Tigerscampaign all the more interesting.

Late last year, the softwarecompany wanted to demonstratehow its technology wors in an

engaging way, so placed twopeople in a cage made of 3.5million glued together toothpics.They spent the night in a Thai

jungle to see how the cagewould hold up against curiousand territorial tigers. The goodnews is that they survived, andAVG vividly demonstrated how itsstrength in numbers approachwors; users are the toothpics,the threat to online security isthe tiger, and the glue is AVG,providing protection and themeans for the community toshare information.

AVG provides software solutionsto computer security threats forpersonal and business customers.

No. 2 Tech brand forsecond year.

Within top ten brands onYouTube and Faceboo.

With almost 5 million views onYouTube and a lively thread ofcomments, the lm certainlyseems to have hit the mar, butits just one of a series of videosthe company has made with theaim of educating its communitythrough tutorials and insights intotopical security issues.

For AVGs Jas Dhaliwal,

participating in discussion andbeing open to opinion is ey tobeing a social brand. We tae ourmessaging and content right tothe heart of our community, hesays. It allows the wider publicto have an ongoing conversationwith us. Feedbac helps us tobuild better products. Advocacybrings us closer to those who arelife-long supporters of the brandand our products.

Social also plays an importantrole in customer support onFaceboo. Its great to see howpeople have not only joined thePage, but made it their dailydestination for security news andupdates, says Dhaliwal. With over1 million fans, AVG thans itsmost active and helpful membersthrough its monthly CommunityAwards, which bestow free

licences and increasing pers onrepeat winners.

The challenge lies in stayingrelevant and one step ahead asthousands of brands get betterat social media. AVGs growingglobal team and well-establishedcommunity of advocates putsthem in a good position now,but they dont feel complacentbecause, as Dhaliwal points out,Social never sleeps!

avg: using advoCaCy to BuiLd a Better Brand

ranking: 29

data sCore: 133

paneL sCore: 73


Chatting about holiday plansand crushes; all in a days worfor the team at Schuh. Their aimis to give people something tolaugh about and a good chinwagaccording to Schuhs Jen Ranine.Last time we checed, we arehuman and we dont try to beanything but that; our customerswould see right through it,she says.

Over the last year, Schuh hasestablished a dedicated in-house social team. As wellas showcasing the brandspersonality, the team is there tomae sure that questions dont gounanswered and to eep up withnew developments on platforms.

Schuh is a fashion footwear

retailer with stores across theUk and Ireland.

No. 2 Retail brand.

No. 1 for fan posts interactedwith on Faceboo.

Social plays a role in allcommunications, fromcompetitions and in-store eventsto jobs and relevant serviceinformation, with the aim ofbuilding a community of lie-minded shoe lovers. We checevery feed under the sun toensure that nothing is missed,says Ranine. Customers nownow they can come to our socialpages to get answers to any

niggling questions or help withan order. Handling complaintsare part of the job and theteam dont remove negativecomments, believing its importantto demonstrate how they handleproblems that arise, adding to thehuman feel because everyonemaes mistaes.

Competitions have been avaluable way for the team toengage with their communitiesand reward customer loyalty.Having experimented withcreating Faceboo apps in-house,Schuh started woring with anagency last year. One resultwas iWin, which gave entrantsthe chance to win one of twoiPads and a pair of shoes. Weonly promoted the competition

through social and to our emaildatabase but our engagementlevels went through the roof andour audience grew by 8%,says Ranine.

The coming year will involveintegrating social into otheraspects of the business andengaging with new and regularcustomers who may not beaware of Shuhs social presence.Although Schuh may see socialas a great business tool, they aimto not lose sight of the fact thatpeople invite brands into theirsocial streams, It's a privilege,not a right, says Ranine.

sChuh: maintaining the human touCh

ranking: 40

data sCore: 129

paneL sCore: 71



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The next generation of socialmedia is already being dened.Amongst the ey trends exploredbelow it is apparent that there aretwo main drivers: technology andsophisticated data.

Brands will need to eep paceby evolving exible strategies,up-silling teams, andexperimenting withcommunications designedto put the customer rst.

We are rapidly moving away fromthe push of a button or a swipeof a touch screen, to naturalinteractions, for example voice,gesture, touch, facial recognitionand smell. Social content in thefuture will need to communicatewith the consumer as if they werethere in person at that momentin time, providing personality andcontent that is contextuallyrelevant to that individual.

Physical objects connected to theInternet will interact with us as ifthey have a personality too.Devices already exist that cantweet us when the plants needwatering. Brands should loo tomove away from augmentingone-size-ts-all digital content,to the product itself actuallycommunicating personalisedcontent.

For example, bottled sports drinsmight access a users socialproles to remind them when theynext need to hydrate and providehealth advice tailored specicallyto that person. Tae it a stepfurther, and if we allow multipleproducts that we consume on aregular basis access to our socialproles, they will communicatewith one another and manage ourdaily lives.

Inuencers across all sectors willreign supreme. They will lter andcurate the content we consume.We will be able to follow everymove people choose to show usin the digital world. Brands willneed to be more sophisticatedin managing relationshipswith inuencers, creating andmeasuring content with both thesocial and interest graphs in mind.

With virtual and physicalproducts lined to the web,brands will need to become evenmore sophisticated with themeasurement of content andvalue delivered to customers.Every touchpoint in the purchasecycle can be lined directly to acustomers social prole allowingus to trac and measureinteractions in the physicalworld with the same depth asin the digital world. Data willbe interpreted correctly andresponded to in real-time, maingcreative content uid and agile tocapitalise on emerging trends.

For all the developments intechnology and data sharing,social brands of the future willneed to have the individual needsof their customers sitting at theheart of their communicationsstrategy. Communication isfundamentally personal, and withsocial media complementing therapid developments in technology,communications in the future willbecome hyper-personalised tothe point where relationships withbrands will be tangible.

NATURAL INTERFACES Content & FiLtering Bigger & Better data

WHAT NEXT?

By Tom Chapman, Head of Innovation for Lawton Communications Group

INTERNET OF THINGS


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APPENDIX

Automotive Ford 24 130 80 210

Automotive Acura 95 131 26 157

Charity Cancer Research Uk 4 134 101 235

Charity British Red Cross 5 129 104 233

Charity ARkive 6 145 87 232

Charity WWF 17 117 99 216

Charity DoSomething.org 18 125 90 215

Charity Help for Heroes 19 130 83 213

Charity RSPB 23 129 83 212

Charity National Trust 24 120 90 210

Charity NSPCC 29 115 91 206

Charity The MS Society 38 110 92 202

Charity The British Heart Foundation 39 126 75 201Charity Diabetes Uk 41 116 83 199

Charity Marie Curie Cancer Care 41 119 80 199

Charity RAF Benevolent Fund 71 117 61 178

Charity VisitWoods 71 112 66 178

Charity Just Giving 86 118 49 167

Charity The National Lottery 89 110 53 163

Entertainment The Ellen DeGeneres Show 9 140 84 224

Entertainment Xbox 13 137 81 218

Entertainment WWE 19 141 72 213

Fashion and Beauty Lush 60 114 70 184

Fashion and Beauty e.l.f. Cosmetics 76 127 47 174

Fashion and Beauty Estee Lauder 92 111 49 160

industry Brand rank data sCore paneL sCore soCiaL Brand sCore

1 No. 1 brands byindustry sector

2 Brands by industry sector

3 Observable marers

4 Methodology in detail

39

1 NO. 1 BRANDS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR 2 BRANDS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR

INDUSTRY BRAND

Automotive Ford

Charity Cancer Research Uk

Entertainment The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Fashion & Beauty Lush

Financial Services Wonga

FMCG Innocent

Manufactured goods Gibson

Media Guinness World Records

Retail ASOS

Services Met Oce

Technology HTC

Telecom gigaTravel & Leisure Starbucs


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41

Financial Services Wonga 41 138 61 199

Financial Services Virgin Money 65 127 54 181

Financial Services Simplyhealth 88 123 42 165

Financial Services PayPal 97 113 41 154

FMCG Innocent 1 139 99 238

FMCG Cadbury 7 147 84 231

FMCG Lurpa 13 128 90 218

FMCG Red Bull 13 125 93 218

FMCG Cravendale 19 127 86 213

FMCG Tetley 24 135 75 210

FMCG Marmite 34 118 86 204

FMCG Muddy Boots Real Foods 53 113 79 192

FMCG The Collective NZ 57 110 79 189FMCG MaxiRAW 68 142 38 180

FMCG Walers Crisps 89 125 38 163

FMCG Oral B 92 119 41 160

FMCG Ribena 96 117 38 155

FMCG Tropicana 98 110 34 144

Manufactured goods Gibson 45 137 60 197

Manufactured goods Mongoose Cricet 68 127 53 180

Media Guinness World Records 12 145 74 219

Media Capital FM 27 133 75 208

Media Penguin Uk 27 134 74 208

Media road.cc 34 140 64 204

Media BBC 45 114 83 197


Media MTV Geordie Shore 70 129 50 179

Media MTV Uk 86 118 49 167

Retail ASOS 7 129 102 231

Retail Schuh 40 129 71 200

Retail TOMS 49 129 66 195

Retail Sainsbury's 50 117 77 194

Retail B&Q 53 116 76 192

Retail HMV 75 114 61 175

Retail Very.co.u 78 117 56 173

Retail Frugi 91 112 50 162

Services Met Oce 9 145 79 224

Services National Rail Enquiries 36 131 72 203

Services Groupon 65 117 64 181Services studentbeans.com 83 110 60 170

Technology HTC 11 164 57 221

Technology AVG 29 133 73 206

Technology GoPro 36 140 63 203

Technology Blacberry 45 147 50 197

Technology Motorola 55 128 62 190

Technology Dell 59 112 75 187

Technology Intel Uk 65 128 53 181

Technology Bing Uk 76 130 44 174

Technology Sony Ericsson (Xperia) 78 137 36 173

Technology Google 81 125 46 171

Technology Samsung Mobile 84 128 40 168


2 BRANDS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR (CONT) 2 BRANDS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR (CONT)


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Technology BullGuard 100 113 20 133

Telecom giga 3 155 81 236

Telecom O2 58 113 75 188

Telecom Mobile Viings 60 127 57 184

Telecom Orange 71 112 66 178

Telecom Comcast 84 126 42 168

Telecom CenturyLin 94 121 38 159

Telecom AT&T 99 110 33 143

Travel & Leisure Virtuous Bread 29 123 83 206

Travel & Leisure Starbucs 2 151 86 237

Travel & Leisure Manchester City Football Club 16 132 84 216

Travel & Leisure kLM 19 127 86 213

Travel & Leisure Trent Barton 29 123 83 206Travel & Leisure Leicester Tigers Rugby Club 33 129 76 205

Travel & Leisure Fifteen Cornwall 44 112 86 198

Travel & Leisure Cardi bus 45 118 79 197

Travel & Leisure Domino's Pizza 51 115 78 193

Travel & Leisure Tate 51 115 78 193

Travel & Leisure WestJet 55 133 57 190

Travel & Leisure Chiltern Railways 62 122 60 182

Travel & Leisure Mr & Mrs Smith 62 118 64 182

Travel & Leisure Southwest Airlines 62 116 66 182

Travel & Leisure Virgin Atlantic 71 111 67 178

Travel & Leisure Delta 80 126 46 172

Travel & Leisure Virgin Trains 81 118 53 171


2 BRANDS BY INDUSTRY SECTOR (CONT)

The scoring across each of theplatforms is based on a series ofobservable marers. Each oneindicates a dierent aspect ofsocial behaviour by the brands. Ineect, we are measuring a basetof outputs which together showsocial performance levels.

On the next three pages thereare further descriptions of themarers and what each onemeasures.

oBservaBLe markers

FaCeBook

Brand postengagement

Fan post:Brand post ratio

Fan post

engagement

Fan posts interactedwith by brand

Number of lies,comments andshares generatedby brand posts(normalised forcommunity size)

Ratio of fan posts tobrand posts

Number of lies,

comments andshares generatedby fan posts(normalised forcommunity size)

Percentage of fanposts responded to bybrand administrator/community manager

Intensity of interactionwith brand postedcontent. Provides ameasure of the brandssuccess in creatingcontent and behaviourthat is valuable in theeyes of the communityVibrancy of communityand brandswillingness/ability tofoster communityparticipation

Intensity of interaction

with fan postedcontent, providing ameasure of the healthof the peer-to-peerspirit in the community

Quality of activelistening, andwillingness toundertae genuineconversation vs.broadcast messages

marker name marker desCription MEASURING


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TWITTER

All @brand mentions

Retweets

Mentions of third

party @accounts by@brand

Timeliness ofresponse

Number of @brandmentions (normalisedfor number offollowers)

Retweets of @brandtweets (normalised fornumber of followers)

Mentions of third

party @accounts by@brand

Average time taenwhen responding tothird party @accounts

Success in creatingcontent andconversations thatare shared throughnetwors

Ability to createcontent that hasso much value inthe eyes of thecommunity that theyare willing to shareit with their ownsocial graph

Quality of active

listening andwillingness toundertae genuineconversation vs.pushing messagesHaving the resourceand will to deliveralways-on communitymanagement

marker name marker desCripti on MEASURING

GOOGLE+

+1s per post

Shares per post

Comments per post

Average +1s per post

Average sharesper post

Average commentsper post

Ability to createcontent that hasso much value inthe eyes of thecommunity that theyare willing to share itwith their own socialgraph

Ability to createcontent that hasso much value inthe eyes of thecommunity that theyare willing to share itwith their own social

graph

Intensity of interactionwith brand postedcontent. Providesa measure of thebrands success increating content, andconversation that isvaluable in the eyes ofthe community


YOUTUBE

Average viewsper video

Average commentsper video

Average numberof views per videoposted by brand

Average number ofcomments per videoposted by brand

Value of video contentin the eyes of thecommunity

Intensity of interactionwith video content


BRAND OWNED FORUM

Posts per thread Posts per forumthread

Success in creatinga vibrant communitywith high levels ofinteraction


BRAND OWNED BLOG

Blog usage

Comment : post ratio

Brand blog used

Comment topost ratio

Willingness to createlong-form content, andengage with community

Success in creatingvaluable andappropriate contentthat prompts interaction


OWN WEBSITE

Outpost lins

Outpost lin visibility

Lins to socialoutposts

Visibility of lins tosocial outposts

Proactive promotionof brands wider socialfootprint

High priority given tosocial outposts as partof overall digital brandexperience


Foursquare

Tips done Average number ofpeople who completed

tips left by the brand

Creation of valuableand appropriate

content that promptsinteraction



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aCknowLedgements

We would lie to express ourthans to the following individualsand organisations that have madesignicant contributions to theSocial Brands 100.

To Brandwatch, our social mediamonitoring partner for the secondtime round. They power a largepart of the analytics behind theraning, and this year developedbespoe algorithms to alloweven greater levels of detailedassessment.

To our exclusive media partner,Brand Republic, for theirenthusiasm for and support of

the research.To our judging panel, whocontributed their time andconsiderable expertise.

To Nexus Globalnet, our wipartner, for ensuring reliableconnectivity at our events.

Finally, than you for yourinterest. Please contact any ofus with thoughts or questions [email protected] @socialbrands100.

Steve SponderHead of Agency, Headstream

Julius DuncanMareting DirectorMaeve OSullivanContent DirectorNic OwenHead of Data AnalyticsAndrea CattConnections DirectorDarren VernallArt DirectorSam HilarySocial Media ManagerSteve MatthewsDesignerRich SmithProject Manager (Publications)Jeremy BourtonMareting Executive

SOCIAL BRANDS 100TEAM

SOCIAL BRANDS 100PARTNERS


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ABOUT HEADSTREAM

Headstream is a specialist socialagency and part of the Lawton

Communications Group.

For the past six years weve beenhelping brands lie the BBC,Activision and McLaren becomemore successful by embeddingsocial into their maretingcommunications.

Social is maing maretingexciting again

Social brings brands closerto customers

Social should be simple

When we have fun with ourclients, we do better wor.

For more information onHeadstreams wor contact:

Andrea [email protected]@andreacatt

+44 (0)23 8082 8520

For media enquiries contact:

Julius [email protected]@juliusduncan

+44 (0)23 8082 8585

www.headstream.com@headstream

we BeLieve

The Social Brand Agency


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GLOSSARY

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53

Brand GuidelinesA written document outlining themain statements and values thata company has in place, enablingothers to understand what thebrand is about.

CrowdsourcedThe act of putting out aninformation request to a largegroup of people, often open tothe general public, and collectingtogether the ideas to inuence orcreate a project.

DiasporaA community of people that hasspread to diverse locations.

Inuencerskey people in communities whoare either well read by, or looedup to by the community that theyinhabit.

Interest GraphA networ of relationshipsbetween individuals and onlinecontent that centres on aparticular topic, or interest.MemeA piece of content, or behaviouralact, which is passed on rapidlybetween people, attractingwidespread attention acrossdigital and social platforms.

NormaliseTo mae information conform to aset standard.

Observable MarerAn indicator of interactionsbetween people in social anddigital spaces.

Social AgeThe period of time since Web 2.0emerged in the early part of thismillennium, enabling individualsto networ, share information,collaborate and create contenteasily.Social GraphThe global relationships betweenusers on social networs.

Social NetworAn online service, platform orsite that facilitates the building ofsocial relations among people.

Social SpacesThe types of websites and onlineplatforms that act as socialnetwors.

Value Based ContentContent that focuses onproviding a value to people e.g.utility, entertainment, rather thanpushing mareting messages.


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For extra copies ofSocial Brands 100 contact:[email protected]

20


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Documents

Social Media Brand Top 100