What do Starbucks, Toyota and Dell Know that You Don't?

Today I ran across a very interesting post which shows a direct correlation between social media engagement and top financial performance. Starbucks, with a social media marketing team of 6 people leads the pack.

According to the study as reported by MC Marketing Charts:

• A brand’s depth of engagement can be measured.
• As the number of social media channels increase, overall engagement increases at a faster rate.
• Engagement differs by industry, with media and technology brands exhibiting the highest engagement levels and financial and food & beverage brands exhibiting the lowest levels. Starbucks is classified in the “leisure” industry.
• Brands in the survey are partitioned into one of four types based on the number of social media channels they participate in. The most engaged are “Mavens.” Other categories are “Butterflies” “Selectives” and the least engaged,”Wallflowers.” Among the least engaged brands: Allianz, AIG and Mercedes-Benz.
• Financial performance correlates with engagement. Companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media significantly surpass their peers in both revenues and profits. For example, The study found that “Mavens” typically enjoyed revenue growth of 18% on average over the last 12 months, while Wallflowers saw revenues fall 6%.

Click here to find the link to the full report conducted by Wet Paint and Altimeter Group.