Twitter Effect: Social Media Boosting Brands

Getting socially connected -- all the cool kids are doing it. And, apparently, so are all the most profitable brands.

According to a new study by Wetpaint and the Altimete Group, brands that are more deeply engaged with their consumers through social media like Twitter and Facebook are, in fact, performing better financially.

The results are in the numbers. The study revealed that those brands rated the most socially engaged saw revenues grow 18% on average during the last 12 months, while those that rated the least connected saw revenues drop off 6% on average during the same period.

In fact, if a company is not moving towards using social media, its directors should be worried, Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at NPD Group, said last week during the Oppenheimer Consumer, Gaming, Lodging & Leisure conference in Boston.

At the conference, representative of both CKE Restaurants(CKR Quote) and Lululemon Athletica(LULU Quote) crowed that outlets such as Twitter have been an efficient, and relatively cheap, advertising outlet.

"We have created an online community where shoppers keep a look out for new product launches and events," Lululemon CFO John Currie said, during his Oppenheimer presentation. The yoga-inspired retailer has nearly 11,000 "followers" on Twitter.