Casual-dining giant Nando's is the leading food and beverage brands on Twitter, according to the latest Food and Beverage Social Media Benchmark from eDigitalResearch.
The recent study saw Nando's cement their place in the top of the Twitter league table with more than 1.5 million followers—half a million more followers than second place Dominos. Given its ever-expanding global presence it's no surprise that Nando's appear in third place within the Instagram league table and fifth within the Facebook league.
Analysis of social media comments using eDigitalResearch's HUB Text Analytics tool reveal the majority of Twitter users are talking about Nando's world-famous chicken, friendly service, and loyalty cards. It seems that, on average, social media posts about Nando's are positive; followers appear to be fans of their tongue-in-cheek humor.
U.K.-based coffee chain Costa Coffee cement their place as one of the leading coffee brands featuring within the top five in both the Twitter and Instagram league tables—just one place behind global giant Starbucks—having gained thousands of fans since the previous wave in June.
The latest benchmark also found that during the busy Christmas period and across weekends, where bookings are likely to be higher for restaurants and eateries, many brands are failing to update their social media platforms regularly.
Kat Hounsell, sales and marketing director at eDigitalResearch, says, "A key social media trend in 2016 will be focusing on listening, not just engaging. We've seen how a creative and engaging strategy can spread brand messages and increase customer reach but it's more important than ever to listen to what these social customers are saying. Competition for consumers attention is fiercer than ever and by properly listening to what people have to say in real-time brands will be able to focus their social content and excel experiences".