The Most Visible Brands on Social Media

The rise of social media over the past decade has given companies/brands new ways of interacting with their customers. The possibility of directly reaching out to millions of self-identified “followers” on platforms such as Instagram has given marketers unprecedented brand-building power.

But it’s not just their own content that brands are profiting from on social media. Selfie culture along with the rise of influencers is giving brands a ton of exposure, which, in many cases, they don’t even have to pay for. The following chart, based on an analysis by social media monitoring firm Brandwatch, shows which brands are most visible on Instagram and Twitter, as measured by the number of photos their logos show up in.

Probably thanks to the 21st century need of taking pictures of our food, McDonald’s is the surprise winner in this category. In an average month, the company’s iconic logo shows up in almost 900,000 photos on Instagram and Twitter. Nike and Adidas complete the top three, as both workout selfies and professional athletes enjoy huge popularity on social media. Apple surprisingly ranks seventh behind the likes of Coca-Cola, Emirates and Google. One could have thought that all those iPhone mirror selfies would have propelled Apple further up in the ranking.