Brands must roll up social media sleeves

EDELMAN   SINGTEL SOCIAL NETWORKS

• Results of DBI released
• SingTel most talked about brand
• Brands need to do more

Singapore - SingTel is Singapore's most talked about brand online according to the Digital Brand Index developed by Edelman and Brandtology, yet all brands still need to improve their social media content the experts argue.

The first DBI Singapore was released yesterday and it found that SingTel (over 9,000) and Google (over 6,000) topped the rankings by way of volume conversations. Canon (4.0) led its competitors in terms of average engagement ahead of Sony at 2.4.

Nearly 75,000 online conversations pertaining to 58 large technology brands were identified between July and September 2009 and interestingly while a number of examples of brands engaging with bloggers were found over the three month research period, no proactive examples of engagement with forums or news sites could be found.

Sanjay Nair, director for the Technology Practice, Edelman Southeast Asia, said: "Technology and gadgets have always been close to Singaporean's hearts - both online and offline. At a time when marketing efficiency remains a rallying cry, brands need to do more to move towards the ‘sweet spot' where engagement meets efficiency.

"Edelman's Digital brand index provides the much needed industry benchmark for companies aspiring to lead the digital marketing wave."

By calculating the average engagement, the DBI also provides an indicative gauge of advocacy by measuring the average comments per unique person who talks about a brand.

"What's just as interesting to observe from the DBI is the large technology brands that did not make the Top 10 list, "said Eddie Chau, Founder & CEO of Brandtology. "Influential channels and voices online are being ignored, and low Engagement Index scores signal a clear opportunity for brands to roll their sleeves up, get more involved and create more compelling social media content to increase their buzz factor."

The HardwareZone forum - Eat, Drink, Man, Woman - was the centre of gravity for mentions of technology brands with 10,308 mentions found (13.8% of total) over the three month period.

The DBI was conducted across eight key markets in the Asia Pacific region, namely, Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Taiwan and Singapore.

Produced on a quarterly basis, the Asia Pacific Digital Brand Index monitors key brands from the following broad categories: Internet and Software, Consumer Electronics, Mobile and Telecommunications, Business and Consulting and IT and Technology, and analyzes across a list of popular online channels which include influential blogs, forums, and online news outlets.

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