LivingSocial’s deal with Whole Foods last month generated $10 million in revenue, 4% of the daily deal industry’s revenue.

LivingSocial’s gross revenue grew by 32% in September, primarily attributable to the Whole Foods deal. By contrast, industry leader Groupon’s revenue grew by 6%.

How did the deal affect conversations around LivingSocial and Whole Foods online? We used Social Radar to find out.

LivingSocial & Whole Foods buzz

Whole Foods generated more buzz than LivingSocial the day of the deal. But both companies benefited from increased buzz that day. Neither company sustained increased buzz as a result though.

LivingSocial vs. Groupon buzz

Groupon consistently generated more buzz than LivingSocial last month, though LivingSocial buzz almost reached Groupon level the day of the Whole Foods deal.

Groupon sentiment

Conversations around Groupon have been an average of 75% positive over the last month.

LivingSocial sentiment

Conversations around LivingSocial have been an average of 82% positive over the last month. The term ‘Groupon’ appears in 24% of all LivingSocial conversations.

Groupon, which came out of nowhere less than two years ago to ignite the daily deals market, has 7,000 employees and is on track to post $1 billion in revenue this year. However, after filing for an IPO, its accounting practices have come under fire. In the most recent filing, the company revised its accounting methodology for the second time, essentially cutting its revenue in half.

What’s next for the daily deals industry?

Throughout the past year Groupon has been a media darling — trailblazing the local deal-a-day market, rejecting a $6 billion acquisition offer by Google, and filing for an IPO that could seek to raise as much as close to $1 billion at a valuation of about $20 billion.

But this has been a rough week for Groupon. First came the blog post from a small cafe owner who said Groupon was “the single worst decision“ she ever made as a business owner. Then a three-part TechCrunch series outlining how Groupon is poised for collapse.

Groupon buzz

Groupon chatter has spiked 8x over the course of the last year.

Groupon sentiment

Sentiment around Groupon is currently at its most negative point. The phrase “poised for collapse” is currently appearing in 11% of every Groupon mention on the Internet.

According to the TechCrunch article, some of the problems with Groupon are that businesses don’t know if the Groupon customers are already existing customers, and that buying a Groupon appears to be helping local businesses, but in many cases Groupon takes 50% or more of the money as a transaction fee.

Did TechCrunch help remove peoples’ rose-colored Groupon glasses?

LinkedIn and its investors are selling $352.8 million worth of stock in its IPO, marking the biggest U.S. Internet IPO since Google. The amount of money LinkedIn is raising makes it the fifth-biggest-ever U.S. IPO in the Internet software and services sector. Google’s 2004 IPO ended up raising $1.67 billion. The offering valued Google at $23 billion, a dollar figure The Wall Street Journal pointed out was bigger than the market value of General Motors.

Shares of LinkedIn soared to more than double their offering price in the company’s IPO on the New York Stock Exchange this morning. LinkedIn began trading around 10:00 a.m. ET under the symbol LNKD and quickly surged to above $90 per share. The company had priced its shares at $45 each on Wednesday ahead of the IPO, and the move significantly higher now values the company at more than $8 billion.

We used Social Radar to measure chatter around LinkedIn.

LinkedIn buzz

Chatter around LinkedIn is currently twice as high as its average buzz throughout the last year.

LinkedIn sentiment

Chatter around LinkedIn is currently 86% positive. The word ‘facebook’ is currently appearing in 29% of LinkedIn conversations.

LinkedIn’s IPO is viewed by many as a barometer of the public market’s appetite for Internet and social media companies, with the likes of Facebook, Groupon, Pandora and Kayak expected to IPO within the next year. Today’s huge surge in LinkedIn shares sends a signal that the market is hungry for tech.

Facebook launched their new Deals service last week, and they were inevitably accused of tromping on Groupon’s territory. Facebook says the service is focused on sharing commerce experiences with friends, and described how placing Deals in the Facebook ecosystem creates a cycle that benefits users and merchants.

We measured buzz around Facebook Deals compared to Groupon.

Facebook Deals vs. Groupon buzz

Facebook Deals chatter spiked above Groupon chatter the day of its announcement, but has since subsided.

Facebook Deals sentiment

Facebook Deals conversations have been 90% positive. Groupon has appeared in 24% of Facebook Deals conversations.

Facebook says it’s not competing with other deal companies like Groupon. What do you think?

Google has finally launched its Groupon competitor, Google Offers. Even though it is late to the game, will Google Offers eclipse the top two established, well-funded players in the space?

Google Offers vs. Groupon vs. LivingSocial buzz

Did you watch Sunday’s Super Bowl XLV for the game or the commercials? The Green Bay Packers defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in an exciting game, but much of today’s talk around the water cooler has been about the ads.

Ad Age rated all of the Super Bowl XLV commercials. Watch all the commercials at www.foxsports.com/ads.

Consumers used blogs and social media sites to discuss ads in real time. The hashtag #brandbowl was the top trending topic on Twitter during the game.

We used Social Radar to run analysis around all major brands that advertised during the game.

Commercial chatter within Super Bowl conversations

The words commercial, ad, advertisement or brand were mentioned in 13.5% of Super Bowl conversations online yesterday and today.

Brand Mentions within Super Bowl Commercial Chatter

Of the brands that advertised during the Super Bowl, Chrysler was mentioned most often. The word Chrysler appeared in 4.49% of Super Bowl advertising chatter. Eminem, the pitch man in the Chrysler ad, as well as the Brisk tea ad, appeared in 3.9% of Super Bowl advertising chatter.  Chrysler generated buzz with a raw depiction of Detroit in its ad, as well as the new tagline “Imported from Detroit.”

Groupon was 2nd most often discussed brand, mentioned in 2.82% of Super Bowl advertising chatter.

Groupon Sentiment Trend

Groupon Sentiment Feb 6-7

Groupon generated negative headlines following its controversial commercial “spoof” of celebrity-endorsed public service announcements. Online conversations around Groupon, which were nearly 90% positive during the month of January, spiked to 60% negative today following the commercial.

Groupon Conversation Topic Cloud

Nearly every topic of conversation around Groupon today has been negative. The word ‘offensive’ appears in more than 5% of all Groupon conversations today.

Regardless of whether the conversations are positive or negative, Groupon generated a lot of publicity thanks to their controversial ad. Is there really no such thing as bad press?

Fast Company reported today that LivingSocial’s traffic surged 80% last week — thanks to its partnership with Amazon — while Groupon’s plummeted 20%.

A few weeks ago, Groupon.com was the darling of the deal-a-day market, rejecting a $6 billion acquisition offer by Google and raising a record-breaking $950 million in venture capital. Last week, LivingSocial announced a $175 million investment from Amazon, and created instant buzz offering a huge discount that attracted millions of users.

We used Social Radar to analyze online conversations around Groupon and LivingSocial.

Groupon vs. LivingSocial chatter trend

Chatter around LivingSocial spiked above Groupon following the Amazon investment and deal announcement, but immediately fell back below Groupon.

Groupon vs. LivingSocial chatter total

Total chatter around Groupon was significantly higher than LivingSocial over the past month.

Groupon vs. LivingSocial sentiment

Conversations around LivingSocial were 88% positive over the past two weeks, while Groupon conversations were only 78% positive.

With rumors today about Google acquiring Groupon, we decided to run analysis around conversations online. Overall Groupon chatter has steadily been on the rise throughout the past year.

Groupon chatter Oct. 1, 2009 – Nov. 19, 2010

Chatter around Groupon has already doubled today thanks to rumors surrounding the Google acquisition.

Groupon chatter Nov. 14, 2010 – Nov. 19, 2010

More than 50% of Groupon conversations mentioned Google today.

Google mentions within Groupon conversations

Conversations around Groupon today have been 84% positive.

Groupon sentiment Nov. 19

However, conversations around Groupon were decidedly negative yesterday due to news about Groupon rolling out a self-serve product that allows merchants to set up virtual storefronts and manager their deals through the group buying site. Some believe the do-it-yourself approach is a misstep that will lower the quality of deals to the point where members stop buying.

Groupon sentiment Nov. 18

Groupon conversation topics Nov. 18

Google is the latest in a string of companies looking to acquire Groupon. Will the deal help Groupon’s growth while at the same time give Google an entry point into the local game?

Last week Groupon offered its first national deal, partnering with Gap to let users buy a $50 Gap store credit for $25. The Groupon was timed to the back-to-school season and sold 441,000 units for $11 million. Groupon has experienced great success selling local deals, but this partnership could lead to more larger, national partnerships.

In the last five months, Groupon expanded from one country to 29 countries, from 3 million subscribers to more than 15 million and from less than 300 employees to more than 1,500 employees. The addition of national brands could boost growth further.

We analyzed overall buzz on Groupon using Social Radar, and found that online chatter around Groupon has increased 800% since the beginning of 2010, and spiked significantly in the past three months.

Overall sentiment from May 1, 2010 through today is overwhelmingly positive at 88%.

A closer look at the sentiment trend in the past month shows generally very positive sentiment with one spike in negativity in late July.

The topic cloud for the past month shows only one negative word: Daily Deal.

We clicked on the spike in negative chatter to review some of the specific posts to find an article in TechCrunch on July 29 about the problem with the daily deal. The article provides an interview with CEO Andrew Mason discussing how the Groupon personalization system will give a user one deal a day based on their preferences, their purchase history and their profile. Although there will be several, simultaneous deals in any given area, a user will only be able to access one main deal from his/her account.

Comparatively speaking though, the negative chatter was miniscule.

Finally, we also decided to analyze where the content was being generated, and found that 80% is coming from microblogs.

This shows us sites like Twitter have been a big source of buzz for Groupon.

With Groupon increasing foot traffic at stores (deals are not valid online), sharing profit with its partners, and a  a $1.35 billion valuation, Groupon is poised for further growth.