| Ford, Lincoln Top First-Ever Automotive Social Media Rankings |
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Top-20 List Reveals Success in Influential Social Media World
Atlanta, GA. (April 14, 2009)
Leading social media company, Vitrue, released today the first-ever ranking of the automotive industry's most social brands, which is designed to capture a brand's share of voice across the ever-growing and influential social media web. Ford debuted at No. 1 followed by Lincoln at No. 2. The rankings utilized Vitrue's proprietary Social Media Index (SMI) to track and measure the brands' "chatter" during Q1'09 across the social web including photo and video sharing sites, social networks like Facebook and MySpace, microblogs like Twitter and general blogosphere.
"We strongly believe that the most successful and innovative automotive brands going forward will embrace social media as a foundational communication vehicle to connect with their consumers" said Reggie Bradford, ceo of Vitrue. "Consumers will play the most important role in development of this next generation of the automotive industry. Car companies must look to social media as a more influential, effective and efficient way to start a dialogue with their consumers." According to a recent Advertising Age story, the Obama administration, working closely with car makers, signaled there will be more financial resources allocated to digital media, among other numerous changes. "Brands like Ford are very much in the mainstream in terms of consumers wanting to see them thrive in this marketplace. They are very much Americana," said Bradford. "Ford is well positioned to continue to grow their social presence to reach, communicate and engage consumers to better understand their needs. Social media provides the environment for consumers to drive innovation forward by letting their voices be heard and brands that are firmly rooted in the social web will succeed by being able to harness this tremendous power of insight and endorsement." The Vitrue SMI was designed in the fall of 2008 to help marketers understand how to benchmark their standings and gives the industry a gauge to help define who is winning in the social space. In January of this year, Vitrue announced the first ever top social brands of 2008 which complied the top 100 brands overall. Today, Vitrue is digging down to see who is effectively utilizing social marketing practices within the automotive vertical. The Vitrue SMI is the first tool to measure word of mouth and provides a simple and comprehensive snapshot of what people are talking about on the social web. As Facebook reaches an audience of 200 million users (Facebook cites) and attains incredible time on site now averaging 169 minutes a month according to ComScore, brands can no longer ignore the need to be firmly rooted in social networks. As of January, more than 50% of Facebook users and 44% of MySpace users in the U.S. were over 35 years old, also according to ComScore estimates. For more information, visit vitrue.com/auto The Vitrue 20 Top Social Auto Brands
About Vitrue, Inc. Vitrue PR |