Do You Buy From Social Brands?

Take a look at Mashable’s 100 most social brands.  See any logic here?  Among the top ten were: “iPhone, Disney, CNN, MTV, NBA, iTunes, Wii, Apple, Xbox and Nike rounded out the top 10 in 2009, respectively.”  On lower rungs we saw premium fashion brands and food, but the take away here for business is that tech, news, and entertainment have taken the biggest lead in becoming “social.”  The payoff will be converting social to profitable.  What correlation have we seen that a more social brand is a more profitable brand?  Is it just that the more profitable brands tend to be more social?  Chicken and the Egg … online.