The somewhat surprising Number 1 is eBay - really!?
Well, according to the guys at Yomego (who run social media monitoring software from Alterian SM2) that's the case. Certainly not the first brand to jump to mind, and not one of the company's that we hear much off on the social sites like Mashable.
Snakes & ladders: The social top 50
The SMR Index gauges brands' social effectiveness using reach (social noise surrounding the brand) and satisfaction (popularity). Also factoring in the "recency" of social interactions, the index then ranks companies on a score of 1 to 100. With a score of 92.29, eBay wins over Apple (88.61) and Google (87.00).
So what are eBay and Apple getting so right?
The report claims that it's result of eBay's long-standing use of customer forums, their commitment to corporate blogging, Twitter, and Facebook demonstrates longevity in social, additionally, eBay has adopted Facebook's Open Graph with customers being able to split the cost of a gift, eBay Group Gifts. Kirsty Bell goes into detail here, what jumps out to me is how eBay are adopting social media strategically, at the business level, working hard to make it a part of the business, whilst other global brands are adopting social media tactically, on an ad-hoc campaign basis with a focus on networks like Facebook being simply a 'channel'.
Apple - famous for being pretty awful in social at the brand level - demonstrate the genius that is focussing on what they are good at. Making remarkable products that their market is obsessed about talking and sharing on their behalf, the hype this week for iPad2 being launched on 2nd March is again testament to that. Of course Apple pull strings and feeds that influencer market, but nonetheless they demonstrate that there are no fixed rules to be successful in social media. More on Apple here.