A report just released by social brand agency Headstream has ranked the Liverpool Echo the UK’s second best media brand according to its its use of social media. The Newcastle Chronicle, Daily Post (Wales) and Smooth were other regional notables.
The Headstream report set out to “identify and acknowledge brands leading the way in social” and it created the rankings by calculating the interactions between brands and individuals on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube over a six week period during March and April 2013.
Media and publishing brands were compared to brands from other industries, including retail, travel and entertainment.
In the ranking of overall best brands on social media, only two media and publishing brands appeared in the Top 50: Heart and the Liverpool Echo with the top three spots occupied by Battlefield, American Airlines and Lufthansa.
In the media and publishing category, Heart came out on top followed by the Liverpool Echo at number 2, The Newcastle Evening Chronicle at number 16, The Daily Post (North Wales) at number 38 and Manchester head-quartered Smooth Radio at 39.
National broadcasters including the BBC (number 22) and Sky at 23 fared less well than perhaps some might expect given their ratings which suggests the management of those two media brands might not be losing too much sleep over these results.
However, given the future shape of media consumption which is increasingly being led by social media, Trinity’s various titles deserve credit and indeed the publisher’s regional social media and engagement editor Heather Hughes said it was a “fantastic achievement.
“Trinity Mirror was the only publisher to have regional titles feature in the list and shows just how strong our digital brands are across the country, and across multiple platforms.”
Neil Macdonald, the head of web and data for the Liverpool Echo added that: “The Liverpool Echo places great importance on its relationship with its readers, so we have always put a lot of effort and attention into how we manage the Echo’s different social media channels.
“Put simply, we make sure people can see and feel there are real people behind the accounts by engaging with our followers as much as we can, answering their questions and having a laugh with them when appropriate. We also work hard to ensure our updates are not just promoting stories on our site, by seeking their views on topics of the day or sharing a picture from our archive for instance.
“It can’t just be one way communication and I think people like that about what we do.”
