Facebook continues to become one of the most important platforms for brands to engage. The Next Web published a list of the top 25 most ‘liked’ brands on Facebook. Do more Facebook ‘likes’ mean increased chatter for brands online? We used Social Radar to run analysis on Web chatter around each of these brands in 2010. Compare the lists below.

Interestingly, there seems to be little correlation between which brands have the most Facebook ‘likes’ and which brands are being talked about most online.

The chart below contains the brands ranked in order of most Facebook ‘likes’, with bars representing online chatter.

As the NBA season begins, new Nike and Adidas ads are generating chatter and views online.

Nike’s new “LeBron Rise” spot, in which LeBron James repeatedly asks “What should I do” was the top viral video last week, with nearly 3 million views online.

Adidas’ spots with Dwight Howard and Derrick Rose were also among the most watched viral videos of the week.

Which of these billion-dollar brands is generating more conversation?

Nike generated three times more online chatter than Adidas throughout the past month.

Nike vs. Adidas chatter

LeBron was mentioned in an average of almost 3% of Nike conversations online during the last month, spiking over 7% on October 24 when the commercial was released.

LeBron mentions within Nike conversations

Chatter around both Adidas and Nike is overwhelmingly positive, with 90% positive chatter for Nike and 91% positive chatter for Adidas.

Nike vs. Adidas sentiment

Nike unveiled its all new Pro Combat uniform series for the 2010 NCAA college football season to much fanfare in New York during a fashion show hosted by ESPN College Game Day Host Chris Fowler. Ten Top 25 teams were selected for the special uniforms reflecting the teams’ traditions, character and culture. Two of the schools, #10 Virginia Tech and #3 Boise State, were the first to wear the uniforms during the biggest game of opening weekend Monday night.

Then, Tuesday, Nike released an iPhone app, Nike+ GPS, a new app for runners that provides incentives to improve training.

We decided to run analysis on Nike and determine which generated more buzz.

Analysis of posts within Nike comparing the words ‘iPhone’, ‘app’, ‘jersey’, ‘Boise’, and ‘uniforms’ tell us the story. The iPhone app was clearly the biggest news of the month for Nike. The topic cloud below provides further evidence.

iPhone, app, Nike+ GPS, and runners are the words being used most often in Nike posts, all generating more buzz than uniforms.

Interestingly, Wayne Rooney is the only negative topic in the conversation. Further research shows us reports that British soccer star Wayne Rooney cheated on his pregnant wife.

Overall buzz around Nike was 82% positive since the weekend.

Last week, the world received news of Tiger Woods being hospitalized with serious injury from a car accident. The world felt sorry for Tiger, wished him well, and waited in anticipation for news of his recovery. This week, the world has a different perspective. As details began to spill, the world had learned that his car accident was the result of Tiger fleeing from his wife as she chased after him, bashing his car with a golf club from news of his unfaithful behavior. How did the public react? How has the sentiment changed? Let’s do some research.

First, let’s compare the topics of conversation around Tiger Woods before news broke of his alleged affairs.

Tiger Woods Topics (Before News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Topics (After News Broke of Affairs):

Tiger Woods Sentiment Before Accident:

Tiger Woods Sentiment After News Of Affairs:

We then go on to measure which topics were being discussed the most around Tiger Woods chatter. Below are some of the topics we analyzed. We included some of the hot topics, including the names of potential mistresses being mentioned.

We also wanted to take a quick peek at the Nike. Let’s see if there’s any real effect or association of this negativity with their brand.

Tiger Woods mentions within Nike chatter

Nike Sentiment within Tiger Woods conversations

Nike BEFORE:

Nike AFTER:

Nike’s negativity did increase this past week, but not significantly. We can certainly conclude that Nike’s brand wasn’t severely affected by this mess. However, Tiger Woods’ brand certainly has been. It will be interesting to see how this plays out and how this continues to affect his brand in the coming weeks.

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.

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 April 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 April 2009. The list measures the number of unique individuals or sources that posted content about each brand during April 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 once again dominates the Top 50 list in April 2009. Already the hottest brand on our March list by a wide margin, Twitter accumulated an additional 10% in chatter in April.

Content sharing website Digg joined the Top 50 this month thanks in part to the April 2 launch of the DiggBar. Enterprise software company Oracle also joined the list with an increase in chatter due to its April 20 acquisition of Sun Microsystems. And as the NBA and NHL Playoffs heated up in April, the NHL joined the Top 50 while the NBA jumped 9 spots.

Dell dropped 23 spots this month as buzz around the March announcement of the new Dell Adamo faded. Kindle also dropped out of the Top 50 as hype around the Kindle 2 subsided.

Conversely, CNN jumped up 10 spots thanks to the race to a million Twitter followers with Ashton Kutcher. IBM also jumped four spots thanks to increasing focus on social media.

View the list below, or download the full 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.