The latest buzz in the restaurant sector is that as per the Virtue listing, new rankings put up the most social restaurant brands. Virtue is based out of Atlanta and is a provider of social media publishing software. 

Vitrue’s Social Media Index (SMI) allocates products and brands a score based on general buzz from photo and video sharing, status updates, popular media sites like Flickr and Youtube  and of course blogs. The company has computed its results for 2011 and announced its top 100 social brands based on index tally.

Four restaurant companies landed among the 100 “most social” brands, according to the third annual rankings of social-media as per the list of  Vitrue, an Atlanta-based provider of social-media publishing software.

Taking the most coveted spot was the coffee giant Starbucks who has been in the news quite a bit lately after announcing their new 31 ounce Trenta coffee size as their intention of expanding to India. They have ranked on top because of the maximum number of online impressions that they have garnered via mobile platforms, video sharing, and last but not the least social network platforms. This is the medium that Virtue uses to develop its rankings. The Seattle-based coffeehouse chain earned the No. 14 spot overall.

Some of the other restaurant brands that managed to get featured in Virtue’s top 100 list were two American national fast food chains. Subway made it to the 64^th spot and not far behind was Mc Donalds at number 66. A regional chain by the name of “Krystal” was ranked at 88.

Krystal decided to listen to its customers demands for chicken wings and recently developed its Game Time Wings. They marketed and promoted this menu item on their Facebook page via a tab. They also decided to go the extra mile and went on a six city sampling tour in the Crave Cruiser food truck.

Companies that beat the restaurants for the most “social brands” ranking were megabrands like the iPhone which topped Virtue’s social media index and its arch rival Blackberry was at the number 2 spot. Some of the others that made it to this list were organizations like Disney at number 3, Coca-Cola at number 9 and Ford at number 11.

Brands are now competing to get the most social media buzz. Starbucks is at the top spot with 19.1 million Facebook fans compared to McDonald’s 6.8 million and Subway’s 3.6 million. Their followers on Twitter are also extensive with more than 1.2 million people following  Starbucks’ Twitter feed, while McDonald’s and Subway have 78,000 and nearly 36,000, respectively.

Krystal’s total of 16,800 Facebook fans and 3,594 Twitter followers are of course far behind but then one must keep in mind that these are regional chains, not international like the ones mentioned above.  

Social media has created a huge paradigm shift for brands. Promoters and marketers that are not taking advantage of social media need to analyze and take notice of this platform. It has taken the marketing world by storm and if not used to its full potential, these brands will be left far behind in the social media index. Social media is turning into public relations tool as well as customer relationship management.

We should soon see a lot more restaurants using social media to get up there on this list and be viewed as the most social restaurants in the world.

Image Credit: ifoodtv