A report out today ranks the social media performance of the world’s most valuable brands. It puts Google as overall clear leader with Disney, Apple, Starbucks, Blackberry and Coca-Cola as runners-up.

The report also names and shames the bottom five social performers from the top 50 most valuable brands: Marlboro, Berkshire Hathaway, JP Morgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and China Mobile all score poorly.  Others trailing behing include Gillette, IBM and Visa. Read More »

One of social media’s greatest benefits to brands is the ability to scale up customer engagement for value creation. The most intimate and valuable type of interaction was until recently facilitated mostly by one on one engagements that demanded extensive human resources and expenditures. Now, powered by digital platforms, engagement reaches scale. Engagement via social media has more to offer than recruiting customers and driving sales.

It can help extend the customer life-time by creating loyalty, as well as optimise it by turning customers into advocates and enjoy additional leads and sales. And –finally, but potentially most importantly, engagement through social media can generate insights from customers, which can lead to better products and services. Read More »

After a few months of testing Google is getting ready to roll out business user accounts, which have to date only been available to a couple of test accounts, namely Ford and General Motors, as reports suggest it is nearing 50 million accounts.

Last week Google opened Google+ to everyone. Users had previously needed invites to join Google+, but in an effort to speed its growth Google threw open the doors to the beta testing of its social network. Read More »

In my previous post I suggested that too many brands use social media marketing in a tactical rather than strategic way. Now I want to look at how social media can serve best when strategically leveraged to create customer value.

One of McKinsey’s frameworks for improving customer benefits suggests three areas of concentration: functional, process and relationship. Social media, as a mechanism to create customer value, can touch upon all three of these pillars and, by harnessing digital platforms and new ways of interacting with consumers, brands can create more value and as a result, willingness to pay. Read More »

Most journalists view the term “brand journalism” with scepticism, but it is nevertheless appropriate as the content that companies impart to their corporate “audience” must be entertaining, relevant and current. While most corporate “users” do not expect this type of communication to suddenly become subject to the same independent principles as many journalists might expect, they do insist on transparency. Read More »

Hurrah there is a winner and it is Lady Gaga. The queen of pop has become the first Twitter user (really superstar user) to soar past the 10 million follower mark. She beat Canadian popster Justin Bieber to take the 10 million crown. Read More »

Unless you’ve been living under that proverbial rock for the last six months (and perhaps even if you have), you’ll no doubt be aware of the phenomenon that is Instagram.

For the rock-dwellers amongst you, Instagram is a smartphone app that allows users to share photos with each other, in a ‘stream’ fairly akin to Twitter.  Its variety of vintage filters allows users a level of creativity too, which is proving highly popular (especially amongst the denizens of Hoxton). Read More »

Launched this morning is the Social Brands 100 table that has ranked the top 100 social media brands and published some key insights all of which you will find below.

No surprise to see Dell at the top it has shown leadership here as has the second and third placed brands Nike (Nike Plus to be specific) and Starbucks. In Fourth is UK mobile brand Giffgaff, which I will be honest and say I have never heard of, and in fifth is BestBuy UK Read More »

What a great infographic that delves into the key issues that brands face on social media. Is it all about followers? Are those 19 million fans you have collected worth their social media weight? And should every brand be social?

This is one to take a good read of. It inlcudes a bunch of great social media case studies looking at brands such as Starbucks, Dunkin Doughnuts, Axe, Clinque, Budweiser and Wendy’s. Enjoy. Read More »

Yesterday, Facebook launched its long awaited “Deals” offering in Europe, but what is it and what does it mean for brands?

Deals, which was launched at the end of last year in the US, allows subscribers of the popular social network to use their smart phones to see what shops have “deals” nearby. Read More »