The most Social Brands is the Media Companies

Virtue measured 2000 brands by using its Social Media Index for the study. It looked at the brands sharing activity, blogging and leaving out brands such as Facebook that make up the social media backbone.

Especially content sites consider becoming more social. The Virtue's list clearly reveals that media brands miss a significant opportunity if they aren't actively involved in the social sphere.

There are ample numbers of brands which are connected to social media or contain media as part of what they do. Of the top 10, only one brand i.e. Nike - has a relatively tenuous tie to media, although one could argue that Nike.com is a pretty hefty content site in its own right.

Other brands in the top 10 are - iPhone (on no. 1), Disney (on no. 2), along with the NBA, iTunes, Wii, Apple and the xBox, which take up slots five through nine on the list.

Almost half of the brands, who are in the top 100, are part of the technology / entertainment / media industrial complex. However, for years, many big media brands gave the Web lip service.

For many of these brands, having a social strategy is de rigeur. Maybe it's because the link between cause and effect is so close in the media industry in a way it isn't for other types of brands. See people share content, watch traffic rise, and maybe money will follow. Or, at least, that's the hope.