As social media continues its prominence across the globe, companies are investing more effort in connecting with fans through this resource. According to McKinsey & Co., 70 percent of all companies around the world use social technologies, with 90 percent of these companies reporting some business benefit from them — and the beverage industry is no exception. Although experts note that social media can be a vehicle for promoting product sales, brands also use the platform to cultivate a relationship with their fans in these online communities.
According to New York-based Unmetric, efforts to increase beverage brands’ social media reach are paying off. The social media benchmarking company reported that Nestlé’s Nescafé brand, The Coca-Cola Co.’s Coca-Cola brand, and Monster Beverage Corp.’s Monster Energy brand each gained approximately 4.7 million, 2.3 million and 1.5 million Facebook fans, respectively, in March 2013.