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Qualifying for a place in the Interbrand Top 100 global brands is tough. The rigorous criteria for inclusion establishes brands as financial assets that create significant shareholder value. Its aim is to highlight those companies that manage and invest in their brands. There are three core components to Interbrand’s methodology: financial performance, influence on customer demand and brand strength.
The Interbrand study recognises brands on a balance sheet. From this, marketers and PR professionals can draw conclusion about brand recognition, awareness, strength and demand. However, the Online voice of the consumer is also a relevant metric of a brand’s perception. Oft regarded as the most uninhibited focus group, online chatter can reveal insights into the awareness of a brand, and its reputation and equity.
The purpose of the immediate future study into brands in the field of online conversation is to understand how brands are performing within social media.
This report, designed to provoke discussion, is not a full data analysis, but rather a snapshot1 of brands’ share of voice in social media. Coupled with a review of sentiment (positive, neutral or negative), it compares the Interbrand Top 100 global brands with their performance in the online conversation. The aim is to offer insights into consumers’ perceptions and examine how this alters the shape of the Interbrand Top 100 list.
Methodology
All research data was conducted by immediate future in April 2007.
Share of voice analysis
Site search functions were utilised to determine the number of times a brand is mentioned on YouTube, MySpace, Bebo, Flickr, Photobucket, Digg, Mag.nolia and Del.icio.us. A brand’s share of voice was determined by comparing the total number of responses returned from a search by brand name. To ensure a thorough representation of the Blogosphere, an average was taken from results returned by Technorati and Google Blog Search.
Social network group sentiment analysis
To gain a measure of the overall sentiment of brand-focused Groups set up on Social networks, brand name searches were conducted across three major social network sites Facebook, Flickr and MySpace. All groups focused primarily upon a brand were recorded and split in accordance to whether the overall tone was positive, negative or neutral.
Brands’ share of voice in social media
Discovering share of voice provides a snapshot of brand mentions in social media. It does not take into account the influence of the mentions and therefore measure the impact of the conversations. It is the first step in the discovery and Mapping of a brand’s social media landscape and it enables brands to identify the noise or Buzz about them online.
By measuring the number of times the Interbrand top 100 global brands are mentioned across the most prominent social media sites, it is possible to determine which brands are the most talked about. The bigger the noise, the more important it is for brands to examine who is talking about them, what they are saying and if they are influential. It is the first step in engaging with social media and participating in the conversation.
For the purpose of this study, immediate future reviewed the blogosphere, alongside the most popular Networks and media sharing sites, including:
1 Brands wanting to understand fully their position in social media should treat this document as raw, top-line information. Comprehensive research of influence, sentiment and stakeholder analysis is required for a more accurate picture of a brand's share of voice and sentiment in the online conversation.
2 Facebook is not included, as it does not include a facility to search across the site as a whole for brand mentions
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