Apple dominates The Vitrue 100 - Top Social Brands of 2008

Vitrue has announced the inaugural ranking of the top social brands for 2008, The Vitrue 100. The list is a provocative mix of blue chip brands that are commanding attention and engagement within social communities online.

Vitrue has applied its technology and data capturing capabilities to measure what is being most talked about on the social web. Each day, Vitrue analyzes online conversations on a variety of social networking, blogging, micro-blogging, photo and video sharing sites. In turn, brands earn a composite score that enables Vitrue to rank terms.

iPhone reigns as the #1 most social brand, outscoring its innovator and parent, Apple, which ranks #3. Overall, Apple dominates by also securing iPod at #7 and the Mac at #16…Finishing out the top 10 most social brands are: #2 CNN, #4 Disney, #5 Xbox, #6 Starbucks, #8 MTV, #9 Sony and #10 Dell. Microsoft has an two brands in the top 15 with #5 Xbox and #11 Microsoft while Sony retains #9 and its PlayStation #15.

“The Vitrue 100 has been an interesting initiative for us, one where we are able to leverage our platform of technology and data to deliver insights,” explains Reggie Bradford, CEO of Vitrue, in the press release. “A ranking like this begins to bring clarity and credibility to this emerging space. We know marketers need a way to measure success and create benchmarks to track their efforts over time, while our industry needs directional trends to help define who is doing well and who can do better engaging their consumers online.”

Media and entertainment brands lead the top 20 with spots including #2 CNN, #4 Disney, #5 Xbox, #8 MTV, #9 Sony, #13 Nintendo, #15 PlayStation, #17 Turner and #19 Fox News. Only one specialty brand, #6 Starbucks, only one retail brand, #14 Target, and only one auto manufacturer, #12 Ford, broke the top 20.

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.

Full Virtue top 100:

http://vitrue.com/blog/2009/01/29/the-vitrue-100-top-social-brands-of-2008/