The Alinean social media popularity findings highlight distinct differences in popularity based on company practices and customer profiles, with many companies and industries displaying an enormous leveraging of social media versus peers. As social media grows in use, promotional power and business value, the most popular companies will have a distinct competitive advantage in revenue generation, marketing efficiency and return on marketing.
The study found that the companies that are the most popular overall in social media are centered in a few industries (on average), especially:
Industries found to have companies with the least overall social media popularity (on average) include:
The difference between most popular and least popular industries is dramatic, with the most popular industries being over 1,000 times as popular as the least popular industries. Within different industries, performance of individual companies is even more dramatic, showing the maturity and investment payoff (at least in terms of affinity) of certain companies versus others, and how far behind many individual companies are from the leaders.
Examining the reasons for popularity, the study highlights five important factors for large enterprise social media popularity: