As “Brands in Social Media” go, Google, Yahoo, Apple, and Microsoft stand head and shoulders above the rest. Indeed, Google appears to receive more than ten times as much attention as Amazon. But even within these four leaders, there are some big differences.
I may have to let you determine exact numbers for yourself – the graph on which the data is displayed is kinda fuzzy, and values on the Y axis increase exponentially, making it difficult to get a precise fix on anything. Google is the far-and-away winner, though, in terms of “mentions,” followed by the other three.
(Also, it was kind of Katy Howell, who works as immediate future’s managing director, to display the graph at all. On the corporate blog, she writes, “Just gave this presentation at the Online Marketing Show. Not sure it makes a lot of sense without the banter over the top, but I thought I would share.”)
One thing that becomes clear is the concept that not all attention is good attention; after seeing Microsoft, Ford, and Shell show up on Howell’s first graph, I had to wonder. But a later slide reveals that Microsoft, in particular, received a lot of negative mentions (as did Disney, strangely enough, making me wonder if I missed something).
There you have it, though – the major search engine companies (other than Ask) seem to be a big deal in social media, and for all but one of them, that’s not a bad thing.
Hat tip to vnunet.com’s Robert Jaques.
