The 2013 list of the 100 Most Social Brands in the U.K. from Headstream and Socialbakers is dominated by retail brands. In fact, one out of four brands ranked in the top 100 are retail brands, and one in three brands ranked in the top ten are retail brands.
Despite the overall dominance of retail brands on the Social Brands 100 list, four out of ten of the brands ranked in the top 10 are travel brands. Just one entertainment brand landed in the top ten, but it took first place. In 2013, Headstream’s engagement research identified Battlefield from Electronic Arts as the U.K.’s most social brand.
A total of 715 brands were nominated for inclusion in the 100 Most Social Brands list for 2013, and each brand was evaluated over a six-week period on several criteria, including: engagement rates, fan growth, response rates, and response times.
The top 10 brands on the 2013 list are:
- Battlefield (entertainment)
- American Airlines (travel)
- Lufthansa (travel)
- Thomson Holidays (travel)
- Thomas Cook UK (travel)
- Innocent (FMCG)
- Argos (retail)
- SEAT Mexico (automotive)
- Tesco (retail)
- Dr. Martens (retail)
This report comes just a few weeks after research by Socialbakers was released that identified a significant growth in brand social responsiveness. While the number of people who turn to social media to get answers to customer service questions and problems has skyrocketed over the past year, Socialbakers found that brands are still not adequately responding to those customer comments. They’re improving, but they’re still far from perfect.
Headstream reports that brands are devoting 10% of their marketing budgets on average to social media, but is that money being invested in the best ways? Is it enough? Given the huge shift from telephone and email customer service to social media customer service, companies need to determine where the budget dollars to handle these inquiries will come from, and which department will take responsibility for it. Of course, the best solution would include an integrated effort.
The full Social Brands 100 list for 2013 is included in the infographic below. You can follow the links to view the full ranking list and read the full 2013 Social Brands 100 report, which includes brand rankings by industry and some great insights.
The infographic below, from the Brand Republic’s The Wall blog, gives you an overview of the top 100 social brands.
Image: Headstream
Lucy is Editor at Corporate Eye
