Social media & word of mouth: Which automakers do it best?

Social media users are bombarded with advertisements and promotions — some obvious, some subtle. But in the automotive landscape, which manufacturers are doing it best? And what about offline, in perhaps the oldest form of promotion:  word of mouth?

Engagement Labs, a technology and data company, set out to figure that out and released its findings on Thursday.

If you’ve been seeing a lot of hype about Nissan on Facebook, or BMW on Twitter, or Mercedes-Benz on Instagram, that’s no accident — and those three brands were ranked highest in each of those three respective social media platforms.

As for best brand being talked about via word of mouth? Tesla Motors took the top rank, according to Engagement Labs.

"In a competitive field such as the automotive industry, brands have a tough time standing out,” said Bryan Segal, Engagement Labs’ chief executive officer. "While social media provides an excellent avenue to differentiate one's brand from the competition, it's just as important for brands to understand the power of its offline conversation impact. According to Engagement Labs' data, while many economic automotive brands perform well on social media, they are not creating offline conversations at the scale some luxury automotive brands are."

Here are the full rankings, based on data from Engagement Labs:

According to Engagement Labs, they reached these findings using its proprietary eValue social media measurement tool and TalkTrack, a measurement source of word of mouth conversations from the Keller Fay Group, an Engagement Labs company.

Segal commented on the performance of luxury brands such as Tesla, Ferrari and Porsche, among others, in the word of mouth results.

"Known for their stellar aesthetics and high-end performance, it is no surprise to see luxury automotive brands place higher amongst offline conversations in regards to sentiment," Segal said. "However, luxury appeal is not the only factor in positive word of mouth conversations. For example, Subaru, which recently received high Consumer Reports ratings, also performed well offline. There is an opportunity for Subaru to take this positive momentum to social media to amplify discussion around the brand, both online and offline."