You’d have to be living in the dark ages not to realise the impact Social Media has had on the way brands and businesses communicate with consumers. With almost every small business signing up to facebook, twitter, and the like, to try and create a buzz around their products and services it’s no wonder so many have little or no impact in a saturated market – Creating a loyal following and keeping them interested is one hell of a job.

Established brands and businesses with big budgets to throw at Social Media Campaigns might have some luck but even then it’s quite a minefield and there are some brands who stand head and shoulders above the rest by really understanding their consumers and target audience first, and then grasping how social media best works to engage them.

It’s not as simple as gathering as many ‘likes’ or followers and hoping they’ll stick with you and feel emotionally connected to your ‘brand’ – it’s a full-time job to keep them feeling part of your ‘gang’

The  iProspect Engagement Index shows the level to which people interact with brands on Facebook. It not only combines the number of “likes” a brand has but looks at how many people are ‘talking about this’ which was recently introduced to the site to give a clearer picture of who might just be mastering this relatively new and complicated way of brand communication.

PG Tips scored the highest engagement level out of 250 UK brands measured in February. According to iProspect, nearly two out of 10 of its fans actively responded to the brand’s page in a seven-day period, by liking, commenting, posting, responding to polls or sending RSVPs. Many page posts were themed around the TV Creative featuring Johnny Vegas and brand character Monkey.

The posts regularly drew hundreds of likes and comments – the February peak being 1,569 on Valentine’s Day. The concept for that post was a simple ‘like this post for a Valentine’s surprise’, which was an e-card from Monkey

PG Tips was followed by Bang & Olufsen with an engagement level of 12.6%, Jaguar at 12% and Lemsip at 11.4%.

Other brands to make it into the top 10 include Apple, Costa, Google, Adidas, Madame Tussauds and Rolex.

According to iProspect, if these brands’ engagement levels were measured by fans alone they would have scored lower levels, ranging from 1%-5%.

Social media measurement is still very much in the very early stages, with “likes” and “followers” being the most-used metrics – understandably with so many businesses investing heavily in this area with strategic Social Media Campaigns and full time ‘experts’  it’s increasing more important to understand the true value of a ‘like’ to brands – and how to keep it once you’ve got it

Angus Wood, group director for paid social media at iProspect, said brands are coming to recognise that “engagement is as important as fan acquisition.”

He said: “It’s easy to go out and buy ‘fans’ with short-term competitions and other fan-bait, but if those users never return, and never interact with the brand’s content, it’s not an efficient investment.”

Are you suing Social Media effectively? Which brands do you think effectively use Social Media? Get in touch with your thoughts….