Earlier this year, Toyota announced a series of recalls for many of their most popular models. The uproar in media has definitely impacted Toyota sales, not to mention their overall reputation as America’s top selling auto brand. So what did Toyota do to manage this crisis? They took to the world of social media. Now to answer the question that everyone is dying to know: is it working?

Here we see the rise in social media activity from the end of 2009 to present day. The number of raw posts has quadrupled, hitting a high point of nearly 120,000 posts in a single day. Today’s biggest related news: The Run Away Prius.

Looking at sentiment, to the left we see an analysis of how people felt about Toyota pre-incident. To the right, you can see the influx of negativity as it increases about 30%. And it doesn’t seem to be calming down one little bit.

Above is an illustration of sentiment over time. As you can see, the red line (which depicts negativity) has yet to show a distinct decline, meaning that people are still upset and Toyota needs to try harder at resolving these issues. Hmm.. now if only they could figure out where to start…

By looking at this classification of buzz, it looks like they should start with Twitter as it is pulling in the biggest portion of the traffic. Toyota has a big following on Twitter whether they’re direct followers or not. It’s time for Toyota to accelerate and start reaching out one to one.

Last week, Apple confirmed many speculations of the release of a computing tablet after announcing the launch of the Apple iPad. In wake of the news, social media felt a massive influx of iPad related posts, tweets, mashups as Apple endured praise and criticism from all over the world. Here’s a look at the social media buzz surrounding the iPad:

Activity surged on the day Steve Jobs unveiled his precious new product and nearly 400,000 bits of content were generated on the interweb on this day alone!

Apple must be doing something right upsizing the iTouch because people seem to be really into this new product. Without even getting a chance to sample the actual device, 75% of social media references have been positive.

Here we see a word analysis that shows the to terms associated with each sentiment. “Lack” was the most popular negative term and it seems that the deficiency of the usual computing features and abilities (can someone say Flash?) really tickled some nerves.

This is what it looks like to put all iPab conversations into a word cloud. Here you see that Steve Jobs was a big part of the chatter as were alleged product features. So here it is, straight from the horses mouths. People dig the iPad. Are you going to get one?

The Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during all of 2008 and 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

This year has certainly been interesting. Several new brands made their way to the mainstream making our 2009 Top 50 list, such as Kindle, Amazon’s hit e-book reader, and Android, Google’s mobile OS that is spreading onto smartphones like wildfire. Interestingly, Samsung and Nokia took a big hit this year, as sexier smartphones such as iPhones and Android-powered devices from HTC and Motorola gain more attention.

The list certainly shows that 2009 was the year of Social Media. Twitter moved ahead of Google to take the number 1 spot, while Facebook and MySpace made significant leaps over big brands as well. Most video game related brands were down this year as well, including Sony, Wii, Xbox, and Nintendo. It also appears TV brands all jumped this year including Disney, MTV, Fox, BBC, CNN, ESPN, and ABC.

Download the PDF:

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Social Radar Screenshot:

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

As everything on the internet becomes social, is it only inevitable that all of your personal information and private life matters will become available as a public offering? Would you give your 5,000 Twitter followers access to your checking account statements? There’s a new social network in town, in the form of a microblog, that is positioning their service as “A fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying.” Blippy is stirring up some heated discussions on the internet and we used Social Radar to see what people are saying about this new social platform.

Blippy launched their private beta last week and got instant negative reactions as news spread through coverage from popular blogs TechCrunch and the NY Times.

With just over 30% of all related posts emitting negative emotion people don’t seem to think that Blippy is a very good basis for a microblog.

As Blippy is still only in beta, it will be interesting to see what happens as more and more people gain access to the tool. Have any of you tried it yet? What do you think of Blippy? Let us know!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last month, you have probably been hearing about the ad battle between AT&T and Verizon that is paralleling a political campaign with constant attacking on both sides. It all started when Verizon decided to make a silly spin on iPhone “There’s an App for That” ads by making a “There’s a Map for That” ad, exploiting AT&T’s poor 3G network coverage. To fight back, AT&T decided to sue Verizon, leading to a war of attack ads back and forth that has no end in sight.

What does the consumer do in this situation? Sit back and watch in amusement? Take sides? One thing’s for certain - they’ve been talking, and Social Radar is showing us some interesting insight. Let’s take a look.

Now let’s take a look at the sentiment after the ad battle.

The sentiment appears to have effected AT&T the most severely, appearing to be a success for Verizon. But, both brands gained at least some negativity. Though this is good news for Verizon, let’s take a look at this from another perspective.

Below is a trend chart from September 1st, 2009 through today of Droid Mentions (blue line) versus Commercial/Ad Mentions (red line) within Verizon chatter.

What’s concerning here is that as soon as Verizon began to run these AT&T attack ads, chatter around their beloved Droid devices has dramatically decreased. We can see very clearly that consumers are losing focus and beginning to chat more about their commercials than the very ammunition they are using to sell against AT&T and the iPhone.

It will be interesting to see how this continues to play out. Are attack ads a good way to point out flaws of competitors or does it simply lose their consumers’ focus?

The other day, popular household cleaner producer Method pulled down a viral video meant to support the Household Product Labeling Acts, which would require disclosure of ingredients in household cleaners. The video, (which can be viewed through unauthorized versions on YouTube), received intense reactions from both sides of the emotional spectrum, from stamps of approval to boiling complaints and accusations of offensiveness. Let’s take a look at what was really going on in social media.

Looking at sentiment trend, we can see that negativity only began to rise recently and still does not compare to the amount of positive response it is getting online. However, as more attention is brought to the matter and word of mouth takes hold, it can be expected that this red line will continue to increase.

One of the highest trending related topics to this campaign are the sexism complaints. Here we see that a whopping 11% of people posting are responding  positively to the fact that Method has pulled the campaign. So how much of a negative impact has this campaign really had on social media users?

This graph shows that 5% of all posts have negative sentiment towards the topic. Knowing this information, do you think that it was a good call for Method to pull the video down? I’d love to know what you think so feel free to leave a comment.

The November 2009 Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during November 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during November 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

There were quite a few shifts this month. The success of Windows 7 has increased the chatter of Microsoft and Windows, raising their ranking three spots. Verizon has made it into the Top 50 this month and AT&T has increased rank mostly due to chatter around recent Verizon-AT&T attack ads. Also making an appearance this month is Oprah due to her announcement of the show ending in 2011.

The biggest surprise this month is Android, or “Droid”. It has made a remarkable jump to 11th place, surging past heavy hitters iPod, Blackberry, and even MySpace. It received nearly identical amounts of chatter as Windows and Microsoft this month.

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

The Verizon Wireless Droid launched last week and was quick to gain buzz on the internet as consumers got a hold of their very own mini-machines. The Droid gained momentum closer to its release date as numerous reviews, tweets and comments poured into social media.

Taking a deeper look into the content of these posts, we are able to pin-pont key concerns that users associate with Verizon’s new product. The fact that the Droid is being offered at the reasonable price of $199 bodes well across the board.

Looking at this sentiment trend, we are able to see emotions mapped out over time. As expected, negativity climbed after phones went on sale and consumers were actually able to get their hands on the product. On a good note, things look to be calming down quickly, but, as usual, can be expected to fluctuate a long the way as more and more of these devices are disbursed.

Thinking about getting a Droid, but aren’t really sure? Social media has become a very useful product research outlet for many, and this next graph illustrates where the best places are to look for insight. Nearly half of the content related to the Droid is coming out of the social media world via blogs. If you’re looking for fast and to-the-point feedback, Droid conversations are sprouting up all over the Twitter network. Simply search Twitter for the #droid hashtag to see what people are saying or to speak your mind!

The October 2009 Social Radar Top 50 measures the brands with the most active Web presence based on overall online conversation volume. To create the Top 50 list, we used Social Radar to analyze millions of blog posts, news feeds, forums, social networks and Twitter posts to aggregate a list of the words and brands mentioned most frequently on the Web during October 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during October 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

There are no big surprises with the Top 10 this month. NFL dropped 10 spots as the season opening excitement has died down a bit, while NBA jumped 11 spots as the basketball season kicks off. AT&T has dropped, while other cell phone related brands have increased such as LG and Blackberry, as well as newcomers to the list - HTC and Android. With many new Android devices out and on the horizon, as well as the recent “droid does” campaign, Android has joined our list this month at a surprising 29th place.

View the full list below, or download the PDF. For additional information about how you can analyze chatter sentiment to gauge positivity/negativity, view key words mentioned about your brand and identify key influencers, visit www.infegy.com/socialradar.

Questions or comments? Twitter me @adamcoomes.

Corporations and advertising agencies often look for creative ways to measure the ROI on campaigns and announcements. Was the direct mail more effective than the TV spot? Did the announcement increase buzz? Was it positive or negative?

We used Social Radar to create a mini case study on Verizon’s trend chart below to determine the cause of the spike in chatter on Oct. 6.

I simply clicked on the peak on Oct. 6 to generate some instant analysis. First, the topic cloud:

We can instantly determine that Google, Android Phones and Map were hot topics on Oct. 6 based on the size of the words. And those three words were all green, meaning sentiment was generally positive. Good news for Verizon so far.

By hovering over the word Google below, we quickly find that Google was mentioned in 47% of posts on Oct. 6, and sentiment was 90% positive. Verizon announced on Oct. 6 an agreement with Google to co-develop several Android-based devices and promised to introduce two Android-based handsets within the next few weeks.

Similarly, hovering over the word map below shows that it appeared in 12% of posts and 81% of the comments were positive. AT&T was mentioned as a related topic. During the Oct. 5 Monday Night Football broadcast, Verizon aired a new TV spot capitalizing on complaints about the AT&T’s network with a play on Apple’s signature tagline for the iPhone: “There’s a map for that.”

In addition, by scrolling down the Social Radar analysis page, we find the full list of 11,394 posts about Verizon on Oct. 6. The first two on the list are about the new ad campaign and the Google Android announcement.

So within a few seconds,we conducted some detailed analysis on Verizon’s spike in chatter on Oct. 6. Will the new ad campaign and Google partnership announcement lead to increased market share for Verizon? People are certainly talking.