Does Social Media Equal Financial Success?

A recent study focusing on 100 companies from the 2008 Business Week/Interbrand Best Global Brands determined that companies most "engaged" in social media are experiencing "higher financial success.

After examining the companies and their social media activity levels, the brands were ranked on an "engagement scale" where scores ranged from a high of 127 to a low of 1. Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%.

Companies like Starbucks, Dell, and EBay head the list. These companies, identified as the "mavens," are engaged in 7 or more social media channels.

Out of the top 10 brands engaged in social media, the mavens dominate the list. All of the top 10 are mavens and have seen financial success even in a down economy:
1. Starbucks (127) 2. Dell (123) 3. eBay (115) 4. Google (105) 5. Microsoft (103) 6. Thomson Reuters (101) 7. Nike (100) 8. Amazon (88) 9. SAP (86) 10. Tie - Yahoo!/Intel (85)

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