What can you learn from the most popular brands on the internet?

For the second year in a row, Google was crowned the most popular brand on the internet, according to an annual report by social analytics company Infegy.

The report analysed over 800 brands, using data taken from billions of online conversations from social networks like Facebook and Twitter, as well as news sites, review sites, blogs, forums and more. The brand rankings are based on five different areas:

– The brands people talk about most
– Overall positivity and negativity surrounding each brand
– Levels of positive purchase intent (eg: I want to buy this)
– The topics people reference most when talking about brands
– Rankings based on several metrics including volume and sentiment

While Google was the most talked about brand, Disney came in top for sentiment, with 86% of mentions about the brand being positive, compared to just 69% for Google. Health and fitness technology company FitBit took the top spot for purchase intent, with 36%, 13% higher than Amazon, who came in at number two.

Below is a breakdown of the top 10 most popular brands on the internet from 2014 – you can view the full top 50 in more detail on the Infegy website.

When it comes to mentions of your brand online, people will often quote the infamous line “there’s no such thing as bad publicity”. The idea behind this is that as long as people are talking about your brand, this is a good thing. However, while people talking about your brand will help raise awareness and introduce you to new potential customers, you don’t want these people to have a negative first impression of your business.

Many business owners avoid social media, in the hope that this will somehow reduce the chances of people talking negatively about their brand. This is an incredibly foolish and misguided view to have, however – people will talk about your brand regardless of whether you want them to or not. By having your own social media presence, you can become an active part of the conversation, rather than just sitting idly by.

Social media levelled the playing field for businesses, giving everyone a voice, no matter how big or small. Being active on social media allows you to engage with your customers and speak to them on their level. This, in turn, helps you start to build a lasting relationship with them and develop long term loyalty.