Ben Woodhead Deputy editor - digital

Ben Woodhead is deputy editor - digital at the Financial Review Group. He writes on business, technology, politics and the economy and can be found on BRW, The Australian Financial Review and Smart Investor.

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The top brands on Twitter

Published 04 July 2012 04:42, Updated 05 July 2012 04:17

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The top brands on Twitter

Apple might be the world’s most valuable brand but when it comes to Twitter, US natural foods grocer Whole Foods is the best.

Apple might be the world’s most valuable brand but when it comes to influence on Twitter the gadget maker’s nowhere to be seen.

That’s the finding of a Business Insider effort to rank the most influential brands on Twitter by cross-referencing Fortune’s Top 100 brands with Twitahollic’s most-followed list.

The result is that Apple, which comes in sixth on the Forbes list and topped BrandZ’s Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands in May, doesn’t make it into the top 20 brands on Twitter while its bitter rival Samsung comes in at No. 3.

By Business Insider’s reckoning, the top 10 brands on Twitter are:

  1. Whole Food (@WholeFoods)
  2. Starbucks (@Starbucks)
  3. Samsung (@Samsung)
  4. Jet Blue (@JetBlue)
  5. Toms (@Toms)
  6. Etsy (@etsy)
  7. Woot (@woot)
  8. Southwester Airlines (@SouthwestAir)
  9. PlayStation (@PlayStation)
  10. Research in Motion (@BlackBerry)

Business Insider takes the list out to the top 20 companies, along with some commentary from the firms featured. It also notes that it narrowed its list by focusing on companies that interact with their customers on Twitter, leaving Apple out in the cold.

In contrast to Apple’s approach, Whole Foods’ senior social media program manager Natanya Anderson says interacting with customers is one of the biggest benefits of being on Twitter. Asked what the best part of the job is, Anderson says, “The ability to connect 1-on-1 with customers every day, many times a day. We have a lot of fun with our customers”.

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