| Weekly position | Brand | Reach | Recency | Satisfaction | Recency | Overall | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  |
 |
23.40 | 22.56 | 64.11 | 66.90 | 49.24 |
| 2 | |
 |
13.96 | 14.52 | 73.14 | 75.59 | 44.30 |
| 3 | |
 |
17.02 | 24.46 | 70.74 | 63.77 | 43.99 |
| 4 | |
 |
18.45 | 19.38 | 66.36 | 63.22 | 41.85 |
| 5 | |
 |
7.11 | 7.33 | 67.28 | 70.70 | 40.60 |
Social Media Reputation (SMR) League Tables
Every fortnight, we will be focussing on a different sector and plotting the Social Media Reputation (SMR) scores of the major players. The index – provided by social media agency Yomego – attributes a score, out of 100, by combining metrics for ‘reach’ and ‘satisfaction’. The number of mentions and their sentiment is gauged in context with the sector and the brand’s two nearest competitors.
Sector: Bookmakers
We have ranked five major bookmakers using Yomego’s Social Media Reputation (SMR) popularity index. We then reveal the reasons behind the results and recommend some tactics to boost reach and help to drive advocacy.
William Hill
William Hill is king of the hill in our league table with an overall SMR of 49.24. The company was recently named “Online Betting Company of the Year”, and receives the highest number of daily brand mentions on social channels of all the companies we analysed. Their Twitter account, @williamhillNews has grown to nearly 10k followers as the brand manages to achieve a distinctive tone of voice, directly replying to users’ questions and queries and linking to interesting, relevant content on their own site.
Recommendations: The company has a few issues in terms of its satisfaction score, with some users complaining about dilapidated high street stores “full of old drunk men”, and some staff members have also complained about their employer through their social network. The company should ensure that they have adequate conversation monitoring and social media policies in place to deal with these issues.
Bet 365
Bet 365 comes in 2nd place, some way behind William Hill. Despite being the only online-only bookmaker we analysed, the company does not appear to have made any real commitment to social media, with most social media references coming from affiliates keen to spread their links, which may be perceived as spam by some users. The company achieves the highest satisfaction score, and this is mainly from users who are happy that the site provides free live streaming of sports events in the UK.
Recommendations: There are a number of Facebook pages purporting to be related to the company, but most of these are full of spam or fan-led pages with small followings. These unofficial pages could mislead customers. The company may wish to create an official page and build its followers to ensure that their page appears at the top of Facebook search results if users are looking for the brand.
Paddy Power
Paddy Power recently reported record growth of 55%, mostly from its online business rather than in-store takings. The Independent recently claimed that the company would do well to close its shops and take its business entirely online. Paddy Power has clearly been investing in its social media activity, and is using video content well (over 1.5m YouTube channel views), is using Twitter to provide customer support, and has developed a strong Facebook following, with over 20k page fans.
Recommendations: If the company wants to truly succeed online, it will have to address the technical issues which have led to the website and mobile apps going down in the last week, causing a surge in negative comments from disgruntled punters and leading to a 7 point drop in their satisfaction score.
Ladbrokes
Ladbrokes seems to be social media shy, focusing only on its Ladbrokes Casino brand in social. The company comes in fourth mainly as a result of organic references to the brand rather than as a direct result of their engagement in social media. The company has several Twitter accounts, including @Ladbrokesnews, but this account is used simply as a push channel to share news and winners, rather than engaging directly with users.
Recommendations: The company seems to be following an SEO / linkbuilding and affiliate-led approach to drive traffic towards its site, and is relying on its strong brand and competitive introductory offers as a source of advantage. Ladbrokes could learn from the example set by Paddy Power and William Hill when they next review their social strategy.
Betfred
Betfred is the last horse to cross the finish line, receiving the lowest reach score of all 5 bookmakers we analysed, but the company’s high satisfaction score indicates that it is managing to keep most of its punters happy, and Fred’s decision to refund all bets placed on Binocular when the horse defected at Cheltenham went down particularly well.
There are signs that the company is beginning to take social media seriously, with their official Facebook page being regularly updated and swelling to over 1k fans. However, the company is managing several Twitter accounts, some of which seem to be defunct (@betfredsnooker), and others unused (@betfred). Managing too many accounts can be a drain on resources, as well as presenting a confusing front to customers.
Recommendations: As with William Hill, we have also noticed some negative comments about customers being posted online by company employees, so this is something the company should look out for. Overall, we’d place short odds on the company soon stepping up its game in social media.
