In a new report, social media guru Charlene Li, in partnership with wetpaint, reviews and charts Interbrand’s top 100 brands based on their social media presence and the level of engagement they have with their customers. It’s an innovative and important report for a number of reasons. First and foremost, the report attempts to actually measure the depth of engagement and provides additional insights on trends by industry and the number of social media channels used by each brand. Next, the report goes on to correlate financial performance of these brands with level of engagement.

Not surprisingly, “Mavens,” (those brands engaged in seven or more social media channels with an above-average engagement score), enjoyed double-digit revenue and margin growth (as a category) in spite of the current economy compared to “Walflowers” (those engaged in six or fewer channels and had a below-average engagement score) who had negative financial performance on those same metrics.

Additional insights from the report include:

• Being there is important: having a presence on social networks and micro-blogging outlets is important. The report goes on to say “social media reach alone may have a positive impact” as the more touchpoints used can cause a “ripple effect”, by increasing or “boosting” brand recognition and driving sales volume.”
• Depth is critical: In some respects focusing on depth over breadth may be an effective strategy as depth gives brands the opportunity to understand customer needs and to react quickly – “which in turn generates pricing power” and drives success.
• Scalability is key: Make the customer and a commitment to social media a part of the culture. “A few minutes each day spent by every employee adds up to a wealth of customer touchpoints.”
• Doing nothing is not an option – but doing it all may not be appropriate: Building a social media strategy depends on many factors including who your target is (remember Forrester’s POST methodology), your industry, etc. However, being where your customers are and a part of their online experience is critical.
• Find your sweet spot: Understand what resonates with your customers and engage with them in the channels they use and prefer. If resources are an issue – start small, lobby for more assets and engage fully.

The report goes on to highlight some very compelling case studies including profiles on Starbucks (ranked #1), Dell (#2), SAP (#9), Toyota (#21) and also includes a complementary website that allows brands to engage further and even complete their own brand’s profile. Another great report from Charlene! However, with the focus being so heavily placed on measurement these days it would be great to better understand the “engagement attributes” used to rank these brands (but I guess that is the secret sauce). Furthermore, I would have liked to see how much of a lift these brands experienced on a series of other metrics. Specifically, in a world where people are turning to other people for a things they need rather than the brands themselves, it would have been great to see if these brands experienced any lift in metrics like satisfaction, likelihood to recommend, likelihood to purchase.

To download the report click here.

‘Til Next Time

In case you haven’t already heard, The PMN officially announced our next webinar, “The New Rules Of Customer Service – Participate or Perish” featuring social media guru Steve Rubel. For those of you who don’t know Steve, he is the SVP, Director of Insights at Edelman Digital and authors the popular Micro Persuasion blog on digital trends. In addition to his blog, Steve is actively followed by more than 20,000 people on Twitter and writes a bi-weekly column for Ad Age.

Having known Steve for more than 13 years, I can say without a doubt that our members are in for a treat. There are few people better qualified to help our members understand how to leverage the power of participatory marketing to grow customer relationships and marketing results. Given Steve’s cult-like following, I encourage you all to register early as space is limited. I also want to thank our newest sponsor – TNS Cymfony, a leader in analyzing market influence in social and traditional media. TNS Cymfony joins a growing roster of market-leading sponsors, including recent additions StrongMail and Goodmail.

In addition, for those of you who missed Charlene Li’s fantastic webinar “How To Spark A Conversation Revolution – And Keep Your Job!” in January, you can view the archived webinar and presentation on the member section of our site (membership now required). I also encourage you to check out our Question forum where Charlene responded to attendee questions. Finally, if you haven’t registered for next month’s webinar “Everything They’ve Told You About Marketing Is Wrong,” featuring respected industry analyst Ron Shevlin and sponsored by Goodmail , you can do so by visiting our website.

’Til Next Time