Social Media Reputation Chart by Yomego

Weekly position		Reach	Recency	Satisfaction	Recency	Overall
1	Ford	99.99	99.99	81.13	82.57	90.92
2	Nissan	93.79	93.82	78.26	75.54	85.35
3	Toyota	96.84	97.95	68.78	67.93	82.88
4	Fiat	83.56	84.68	71.46	68.72	77.11
5	Bentley	70.20	73.82	80.46	81.72	76.57

Social Media Reputation (SMR) League Tables

Every fortnight, we will be focussing on a different sector and plotting the Social Media Reputation (SMR) scores of the major players. The index – provided by social media agency Yomego – attributes a score, out of 100, by combining metrics for ‘reach’ and ‘satisfaction’. The number of mentions and their sentiment is gauged in context with the sector and the brand’s two nearest competitors.

Sector: Cars

It has been anything but an easy ride for the automotive industry recently, faced with a market in the depths of the recession, along with increasing global pressure to reduce carbon emissions. Public confidence in car manufacturers has also been shaken in recent months following a spate of recalls by several manufacturers.

We used our Social Media Reputation (SMR) scoring tool to analyse what consumers have been saying about 5 major car manufacturers in social media spaces over the last month, and ranked them based on the reach (number of references, influence of pages where references appear), and satisfaction (proportion of positive, negative or neutral references) to give an SMR scorecard for each brand.

Ford

Ford cruise into first place, with a mammoth reach score of 99.92 – the brand garners tens of thousands of references on social media spaces each day. Advertising Age recently named the American manufacturer “Marketer of the Year”, and the company has become something of a case study on innovative use of social media following the success of campaigns including AJ the Fiesta – a car which tweeted its way around America. Ford also achieves the highest satisfaction score, and has become even more symbolic of American patriotism following its rejection of TARP (troubled asset relief program) funding during the financial crisis.

Recommendations: Ford’s charismatic head of social media, Scott Monty, has become a celebrity in his own right. His Twitter handle, @scottmonty, has around 15% more followers than @ford itself. Appointing an internal champion for social media has been a great move for Ford, but they should be weary of becoming over-reliant on a single employee or having an internal celebrity who may overshadow the company itself. Ford’s strategy of creating social media presences for individual car models risks spreading the company’s resources – both in terms of time and content - too thinly.

Nissan

Nissan took second place in our audit of car brands this month, achieving an SMR of over 85. Many of these references came from Nissan’s recent announcement that it is recalling around 2.1 million cars globally as the result of a faulty engine control system. This has had a negative impact on the brand’s satisfaction score, which has fallen nearly 3 points in the last month. Nissan has also received a boost in mentions (as well as in green credentials) from press coverage and consumer reactions to the electricity-powered Nissan LEAF, with Lance Armstrong onboard as an early advocate.

Recommendations: Nissan must learn from the mistakes made by fellow Japanese manufacturer, Toyota, and be open, honest, and apologetic when dealing with the latest spate of recalls. Anything less than this may detract from the brand’s perceived credibility and ethics which the company’s investment in green technology has done so much to promote.

Toyota

Toyota achieves an overall SMR of >82, but the lowest satisfaction score of all the brands we analysed, indicating the company’s reputation has sustained long-term damage as a result of the massive recalls earlier in the year. A significant number of users have publicly criticised Toyota’s advert for the Highlander model, stating that they find it offensive and feel it makes fun of families who cannot afford a new car, or sends the wrong message to children. On a more positive note, Toyota became the subject of excited online discussion after it emerged that Google has been trialling a self-driving Toyota Prius.

Recommendations: Despite its past mistakes in managing bad PR, Toyota has continued to stick its head in the sand amid the criticisms made by unhappy users on its Facebook page. The brand must define a clear strategy for dealing with negative comments, and address the concerns that users may have, taking action to resolve the situation where necessary. Ignoring problems will not make them go away, and can even aggravate the situation.

Fiat

Fiat’s satisfaction score has taken a tumble this month, as the result of the massive backlash against Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne’s statement that Fiat would be better off without Italy. Fiat is in tense negotiations with unions and the government over its plans to shut down a factory in Sicily, and social media users have been quick to add their own commentary on the situation. Fiat’s reach score is significantly below the level of the top 3 manufacturers. This is mostly the result of a poor performance in social media, especially for Fiat in the UK.

Recommendations: A number of Facebook and Twitter accounts exist, but these are poorly linked to one another. The lack of customisation and content on Facebook pages mean there is little reason for users to linger on the page, and can make it difficult to verify if the pages are official or created by fans of the brand.

Bentley

Bentley achieved the lowest reach score (73), but one of the highest satisfaction scores (81). This is as we would expect for a luxury brand of this size, with more of a niche audience than the other companies we studied. However, it seems that this exclusive brand has been hijacked by customers who fall outside of their traditional target markets. One major source of social media references for the brand this month concerned a lawsuit filed by Bentley against Axl Rose, who is accused of ruining a $192k Bentley Flying Spur. There was a massive volume of video sharing results for Bentley, as a result of the forthcoming release of “Beamer, Benz, or Bentley" the first official single from rapper Lloyd Banks’ new album.

Recommendations: Bentley has so far shied away from social media engagement – with the exception of fan-created pages, and Twitter pages created by Bentley dealerships. This is perhaps as a result of the (mistaken) belief that social media is not effective for luxury brands. Dolce & Gabbana, Jimmy Choo and Burberry are amongst the upmarket brands that are quickly realising that their own website is no longer enough, and that social media isn’t just a marketing channel, but can be an effective form of CRM, too.