Starbucks and Costa Coffee are leading the pack in engaging with UK social media users, according to the latest Food and Beverage Social Media Benchmark from eDigitalResearch.
The research measures the number of ‘likes’ on UK based social media pages and found the coffee firms each attracted more than one million followers, moving them up to the top of the league table.
The benchmark also measured the reach of some global brand pages. Global brand pages, a feature introduced by Facebook back in 2012, allow brands to show localised content for different markets from one central account. Results found that, out of the 50 top food and beverage brands measured, just four - McDonald’s, KFC, Pizza Hut and Nando’s - are currently running their global social media activity via this method - with McDonald’s managing to attract the highest number of international followers with over 44million.
Nando’s topped the benchmark for Twitter with almost double the amount of followers than second placed Domino’s Pizza.
The benchmark found that food and beverage brands are increasingly posting more throughout the weekend. eDigitalResearch said traditionally it had found brand activity wavering on Saturday and Sunday, but the latest results reveal that food and beverage brands are now posting similar amounts of content every single day.
Derek Eccleston, commercial director at eDigitalResearch, said: “There has been a real emphasis over the past couple of years on listening to and engaging with your customers. Social media platforms are a fantastic starting point for brands to connect with customers on both a global and local level.
“However, our benchmark results reveal that food and beverage brands appear to place more of an emphasis on engaging with customers on social media rather than listening - and those brands that do utilise Facebook and Twitter as part of their customer service strategy, often only respond to customers who have had a bad experience. Instead, brands need an effective tool to listen to all social media users, alerting customer relations teams when a situation arises or when a customer has had a great experience - this way, they’ll not only be able to listen and engage with their entire social media following, but also users on an individual level, as well as using feedback to improve their brand experience.”
