When we think about social media success, we tend to think of small companies who come out of nowhere with exceptional, viral campaigns.  It could be a single video that lights digital mediums on fire and after the hype has died down, the firm is catapulted into the public eye.

Conversely, when we think about large corporations are their social media strategies, incredibly dull Twitter feeds and Facebook sites jump to mind.  For example, Kraft recently asked their followers how they liked to eat Ritz.  Shockingly this discussion and innovative content did not go viral.  Since we know so much about these brands already, is there truly much more to be gained by having these companies present in social media?  And does it outweigh the risk of damage when these firms create lazy or hair-brained attempts to increase awareness?

Finally there is a definitive, quantitative methodology for valuing brands’ social value which has real value in predicting the success of these companies as a whole.  BrandZ is gaining recognition because of it’s methodology’s ability to successfully identify the world’s top brands in comparison to the S&P 500 index.  While the evaluation process is not explicitly demonstrated (since the company wants to make it’s money by providing companies with assessments using its bespoke valuation procedure) it’s results are noteworthy.

Social media and the financial world have had a massive wall between them but both fields have a lot to learn from each other about data collection and analysis.  I am massively excited to see what happens when data-driven marketing and finance become fully integrated functions, increasing the quality of valuations of qualitative aspects of organizations like brand power, and improving accountability of marketing efforts and spending.  The BrandZ 2014 report is summed up in this handy infographic:

For those who are interested in the details of this in-depth study, the full report can be viewed here.