US giants top "buzz" rankings - Warc News

News: October 16, 2009

TORONTO: Apple, Microsoft and Google are the major brands generating the largest amounts of online "buzz" among users of social media services like Facebook and Twitter, while McDonald's recorded the most negative feedback from this audience, according to a new report.

Sysomos, the social media analytics firm, recently assessed how the top twenty brands from Interbrand'sannual ranking of the world's most valuable assets were regarded by internet users.

Its analysis covered the "online mentions" of each company on websites ranging from blogs to social networks, and the sentiment contained in each relevant piece of material posted online.

Google took the top spot in terms of the overall number of consumer-generated comments, compared with its position of seventh place in Interbrand's latest study.

However, the amount of content relating to the search giant actually decreased by 13.4% between August and September this year, Sysomos found.

Apple was in second place, compared with the 20th position it was attributed by Interbrand, while Microsoft was third in both polls, although each of these firms saw their buzz levels fall 9% last month.

BMW, in fourth, recorded a 31% contraction in its number of mentions on the web in September, while Hewlett Packard, which closed out the top five, was down by 10% in this timeframe.

Intel, Honda, Disney, Samsung and Toyota completed the top ten, with the two automakers posting declines of almost a quarter in terms of the amount of electronic word-of-mouth they received.

By contrast, Intel was the only member of this group to register an improvement, up by 1.6% on a monthly basis in September.

Gillette, owned by Procter & Gamble, was the brand that delivered the most substantial expansion on this measure, up by just over 13% in all.

This was largely attributed to the success of a digital campaign promoting its Fusion range of shavers and razor blades, according to Sysomos.

Marlboro also saw an uptick in activity of 5.8%, with IBM up by 3.1%, and General Electric by 2.3%, while Mercedes-Benz and Louis Vuitton were the other brands witnessing increases in this area.

Samsung, had the highest level of positive sentiment among netizens, followed by Nokia, Intel, IBM and Cisco, showing the popularity of the electronics and computing sectors with this demographic.

By contrast, McDonald's, Marlboro and Toyota were the subjects of the most critical commentary among this audience respectively.

Sysomos also found that Microsoft rose to second place in terms of total mentions among US web users, out-performing Apple by some 25% in its home market.

More broadly, the company argued that "brands high in positive sentiment on the Sysomos list have lower positions on the Interbrand list."

“Meanwhile, brands with a high position in negative sentiment list have high positions on the Interbrand list."

Earlier this year, the Altimeter Groupreported thatStarbucks and Dell were the brands from Interbrand's rankings that were making the best use of social media to engage consumers.

Data sourced from Sysomos; additional content by Warc staff, 16 October 2009

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