Using hashtags – # - on Twitter to make searching easier is now common practice, especially for the ever growing online community of users who tweet whilst watching TV.  More and more often viewers will see official hashtags appear at the start of programmes so they don’t have to think of their own.  However it seems that  the BBC’s popular series ‘Dragons’ Den -’ where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to a panel of  investors - has bowed to the pressure of Twitter users by changing the official hashtag shown at the start of the programme early on in the ten-part series.  In episode one it’s clearly shown as #bbcdragons:

 

 
By the time we get to episode three of the series the hashtag has changed to
#dragonsden as shown below:

 
Why has the BBC done this?  Well if you look at Social Radar’s analysis of the two tags it
should become clear:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since the series started on 31 July Social Radar has calculated that 192,528 mentions of #dragonsden occurred compared to just 28,915 of the official #bbcdragons.  The hashtag was changed on 14 August to #dragonsden and by episode 4 on 21 August there were only 60 mentions of the original #bbcdragons. 

The BBC has been prepared to drop its brand at the beginning of the tag to try and encourage a community of Twitter users who can easily follow each other’s tweets all from one source.  On the official Dragons’ Den website it displays the current tag and even asks tweeps whether they’ve seen a better one http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/buzz/suggest-hashtag. Overall mentions have declined so it will be interesting to see how this trend develops during the remaining six episodes and whether the hashtag changes again.

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:

Rank	Chg	Brand
1	(+2)	Twitter
2	(-1)	Google
3	(+6)	Facebook
4		iPhone
5	(+2)	YouTube
6	(-4)	Obama
7	(-2)	Mac
8	(-2)	Apple
9	(+3)	iPod
10	(-2)	Microsoft
11		Windows
12	(+5)	MySpace
13	(-3)	Yahoo
14	(+5)	Amazon
15	(+7)	Fox
16	(+10)	Disney
17	(+17)	BlackBerry
18	(-4)	Firefox
19	(+4)	BBC
20	(-2)	Wii
21	(-6)	Sony
22	(-1)	XBox
23	(+2)	Playstation
24	(-8)	Linux
25	(+7)	CNN
26	(+13)	MTV
27	(+8)	AT&T
28	(-15)	eBay
29	(+12)	Starbucks
30		NFL
31		Android
32	(-12)	Nokia
33	(-9)	Ford
34	(+2)	ABC
35		Skype
36	(-8)	Dell
37	(+8)	UPS
38	(-7)	Wikipedia
39	(+1)	NBA
40	(+4)	LG
41		ESPN
42		Oprah
43	(-16)	Samsung
44		NASA
45	(-12)	Nintendo
46	(-17)	Canon
47	(-4)	Nike
48		Gap
49		Kindle
50	(-13)	Intel

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.

The September 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 September 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during September 2009 rather than the overall number of mentions, which would be more heavily influenced by big fans who post frequently about a specific brand.

Twitter falls a bit, but still takes top spot. LG’s new BL20 Chocolate helped LG jump 11 spots. NFL rises again this month as the NFL season heats up. MTV jumps 13 spots due to buzz around the MTV Video Music awards. AT&T’s announcement of MMS support on the iPhone raised AT&T’s position up 5 spots.

Rank	Chg	Brand
1		Twitter
2	(+1)	Facebook
3	(-1)	iPhone
4		Google
5	(+1)	Obama
6	(-1)	YouTube
7	(+1)	Apple
8	(-1)	Mac
9		iPod
10		MySpace
11		Microsoft
12	(+11)	LG
13	(+6)	NFL
14	(-1)	Windows
15	(-3)	Yahoo
16	(+1)	Fox
17	(+13)	MTV
18	(-4)	Disney
19	(-4)	BlackBerry
20	(-4)	Playstation
21	(+5)	AT&T
22	(-1)	BBC
23	(-5)	XBox
24	(-2)	Amazon
25	(-5)	Sony
26	(+3)	CNN
27	(+1)	Wii
28	(-2)	Nokia
29	(-2)	Linux
30	(+2)	Starbucks
31		eBay
32	(+5)	Skype
33	(-9)	Firefox
34	(-1)	ABC
35		Oprah
36		ESPN
37	(-3)	Ford
38	(-3)	Dell
39		UPS
40		Samsung
41	(+3)	NBA
42		Intel
43		Nike
44	(-6)	Wikipedia
45	(-4)	MLB
46	(-1)	Canon
47	(-4)	Marvel
48		CBS
49	(-1)	BMW
50	(-3)	Nintendo

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.