NM Incite's inaugural Social Media Brand Equity Ranking released

SMBER uses a model of analysis to measure and rank brands based on the volume of associated buzz on social media sites and public sentiment surrounding the brand in the online world.  

 

Samsung Mobile Phones is top-of-mind for consumers discussing the Android platform in social media. Samsung’s large following on social media platforms gives it a ‘buzz share’ of 36 percent, according to the results of a previous study that measured the buzz on discussions around Android.

 

Ranked second is automobile manufacturer Ford India, followed by Maruti Suzuki, Nike, and Flipkart to complete the top five. 

 

Farshad Family, managing director, Nielsen Media, India, said, “The SMBER index answers some critical questions for a brand, based on engagement with company  owned social media platforms, as well as the consumer’s conversation on the brand across the platforms. Brand marketers often ask us about their performance against competitors, and want to measure social media efforts beyond counting followers. This ranking approach helps provide those answers.” 

 

The SMBER analysis covers the social media buzz from the period of 1 January, 2011 to 31 December, 2011 for 400 brands in India. It incorporates all the metrics that define a brand’s social media presence. A combination of qualitative metrics such as sentiment towards brand and breadth of presence across various social media platforms, and quantitative metrics, including factors like number of followers and number of unique participants in conversations, are derived from NM Incite’s BuzzMetrics technology. 

 

NM Incite’s SMBER index also builds on Nielsen’s globally used tools for measuring brand  equity and brand health in the off-line world.  

 

“The online medium is one where there is a direct engagement with the consumer. It is very important to find metrics to measure that engagement as it takes place. We expect this to be a critical tool for marketers, as beyond providing insights on brand engagement online, it opens up the individual variables of gauging the impact across online platforms. This will have a direct bearing on social media strategies employed by brands, and will help monitor return on investment on the strategies employed,” said Piyush Mathur, president, Nielsen India.  

 

The top 20 brands are:

 

Rank	Brand
1	Samsung Mobile Phones
2	Ford India
3	Maruti Suzuki
4	Nike
5	Flipkart
6	Mahindra& Mahindra
7	LG Electronics
8	Volkswagen India
9	Channel [V]
10	Sony Ericsson
11	Hyundai
12	Maggi
13	Nokia
14	Airtel
15	Vodafone
16	Tata Docomo
17	HTC
18	Microsoft Xbox
19	BMW India
20	Sony India