Top 100 Social Brands

Out of the world's top 100 social brands, iPhone and Disney lead the way. With Apple's famed iPhone being the most social brand in the world, according to the Virtue 100, a list of the world’s most social brands compiled by social media marketing agency Virtue. The top 100 list is generated through reviewing popular social media sites covering what Virtue refer to as:

Social Networking - general sharing.

Video Sharing - high engagement of viewing time and authenticity of dimension.

Status Updates - aka Micro-Blogs: key influencers who chatter and actively push content.

Photo Sharing - social meta data.

Blogs - general blogsphere, commentary mentions.

Thanks to existing and newly emerging Apps from the likes of Nike, Wave Machine Labs, Lynx, Square Up, WIKITUDE and Parrot to name but a few. The revolutionary iphone not only sits at the top spot for the second year running, but is very probably going to remain there next year too.

Nike - True City



Wave Machine Labs - Voice Band



Lynx -The Perfect Man



Square Up's - Unlimited Mobile Payment Facility, alloys you to accepting credit or debit cards absolutely anywhere. Enabling you to read credit and debit cards through an easy interface from any device with an audio input jack, including your mobile phone. Accepting payments has never been faster or more convenient.

WIKITUDE - Augmented Reality In Car Navigation



Parrot - AR. Drone 1



Parrot - AR. Drone 2



Nike id - Trainer Design Customization



Last year marked the tipping point for social media with Facebook reaching 350 million active users worldwide as adoption of social media by marketers also followed suit.

Disney was rated 2nd with CNN taking the 3rd spot. Interestingly, Apple’s music and download service iTunes wasn’t in the top five – it was listed 6th. Apple itself came in 8th place with its iPod listed 34th. British brands which made the list included Burberry, which was ranked 94th. Media brands make up 8% of list with CNN (3), MTV (4), ESPN (23), CBS (32), Turner (36) and Fox News (56) appearing.  

Marketers are increasingly adding social media as a foundation into the marketing mix and need the infrastructure to manage their increasingly robust presences, according to Virtue. TV ads are now tagged out with Facebook URLs instead of corporate web sites and point-of-sale call to actions now direct you to fan them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.

According to Forrester research, social media marketing is projected to grow at an annual rate of 34%, faster than any other form of online marketing. Furthermore, as eMarketer reported, the percentage of the Fortune 500 not using social media has dropped from 43% now to only 9%.

This year’s list is a provocative mix of blue chip brands – cross category from CPG to auto to electronics to retail. While the iPhone still reigns supreme, game consoles dominate the top of the list with the Wii rating in the 7th spot, Xbox 9th, PlayStation 13th and Nintendo coming in 21st. The biggest gainers in the Virtue 100 this year according to the agency were NBA (5), Nike (10), Victoria’s Secret (41) and KFC (66). Luxury brands had good representation on the list this year with Gucci (27), Louis Vuitton (81) and Prada (88) all featuring.

Some powerhouse technology brands were omitted from the list as they provide the backbone of many social networks. While Google, Facebook and others are top brands, the Vitrue 100 is measuring companies that are using social technology, not those who are the technology.

To read the full report, click here.