A recently published ranking has uncovered the brands with the strongest presence in social media in Romania.

Tech group Samsung takes up the first spot in the 2017 edition of Top Social Brands, a ranking of brands with the strongest presence in the social media put together by local Biz Magazine.

Samsung is up from fourth place in the 2016 ranking, and is followed by soft drink producer Coca-Cola, down from first place, and cosmetics retailer Avon, up from fifth place.

Next in the ranking are telecom company Vodafone, down from second place in 2016, discounter Lidl, up from tenth place, technology group Huawei, fast food chain McDonald’s, down from third place, telecom operator Orange, down from sixth place, local bank Banca Transilvania, up from 27th place, and cyber security company Bitdefender, up from 15th place.

Top Social Brands includes a total of 75 brands that integrate the strategies with the biggest impact and the most effective communication channels of the moment.

The Top Social Brands 2017 study is the result of a complex analysis of the brands’ activities in social media between April 30, 2016 and April 30, 2017.

All types of social media activities were taken into account for this top, including company/brand blogs, campaigns on blogs/with video bloggers, Facebook pages, Facebook apps, Twitter accounts, company accounts on Linkedin, YouTube, Google+ and Instagram accounts, brand activities such as promotion, interaction, and customer care in new social networks (Snapchat, Periscope, WhatsApp), and promotion or endorsement campaigns on celebrities' Facebook pages.

The Top Social Brands 2017 was the result of a two-way ranking of the brands’ results: the ZeList top (appearances and viewership) weighed 35%, and the top made by the Biz Magazine based on the questionnaires completed by companies and its own survey on the social media environment in Romania, which weighed 65%.

Report: Romania’s online advertising market goes up 22%

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com