Each month I check the movement of the top social media sites to see if there’s anything enlightening.

Only this year have brands finally started to appear in the Top 100. Until a few months ago Coca Cola was the only “brand” to make the FB list. The list was dominated by musicians, actors and vacuous celebrities.

The World Cup has created an increase in football players and clubs making the Top 100 FB and Twitter accounts.

Given the amount of industry focus on social media, it is fascinating how few brands make the Top 100 lists. There are 11 in the FB list and none in Twitter. And those brands that do make the list have spent tens of millions of dollars to do so – Coca Cola, Red Bull, Converse (2 sites), Nike, Starbucks, Pepsi, Oreo, KFC, McDonald’s and Walmart.

Whereas the celebrities, musicians and actors have invested very little by comparison. If the biggest brands on the planet with their massive budgets, struggle to make social media work, what chance do most other brands and businesses have in social world?

It’s no wonder so many business executives are cynical about social media. As Associate Professor Mark Ritson says; “social media is about people it’s not about brands“.

As I’ve said before; “there’s a reason it’s called social media, not business media“. Most marketers need to invest a large part of their budget to get social media to work profitably, if at all. That’s not to say you cannot get a positive ROI on social media, but it’s not easy to do so.

And it’s not surprising that people are more interested in Cristiano Rinaldo, Shakira or even dead musicians, than they are in Walmart or McDonald’s. It’s human nature. After all, the world’s biggest sport is people watching. And this may come as a shock to some, but people don’t want brand relationships. Scary hey?

Here’s the lists at today’s date from Fanpagelist and twittercounter:

Account Type                    Facebook             Twitter

Musician/Actor                         47                   63

TV Show/Movie                       19                     9

Football club/player                  7                    10

Social media site                      8                      8

Games                                    5                       0

Vacuous celebrities                  0                     5

Dead musicians                       2                     0

Leaders/Politicians                   1                    5

Brands                                   11                    0

Total                                     100                  100

Hmm, I wonder what the Kardashians are up to today…