GreenBkk.com Tech | Who made the biggest social media splash?

Who made the biggest social media splash?

By Laurence Knight

Business reporter, BBC News

The research shows not only how big an impact each company made, but the path it followed through the social media

Who was the winner at the Mobile World Congress this year?

Normally, the mobile operators and manufacturers who flaunt their latest wares have to wait months for the the sales data to tell them, once the shiny new devices hit the market.

However, a lot depends on buzz, especially buzz on social media.

Fisheye Analytics had a look at how the various brands "performed" on social media.

It measured the "social media impact" of the big brands and the biggest stories from this year's conference by tracing how they fed through Twitter, Facebook, Buzz and the rest, as well as through the more traditional media outlets.

Burning notoriety

They found, for example, that Samsung made a big splash this year with the launch of its new 10.1-in Android Honeycomb tablet, featuring in 19% of all discussion about the industry shindig.

But the Korean firm's new smartphone was ahead only by a whisker of talk about the memo sent round by Nokia's new boss saying the firm was in dire straits, that was conveniently leaked just ahead of the conference.

Fisheye's research shows not only how big an impact each story made, but also the path it followed through the social media

So, for example, an article on tech news-site engadget played a big role in stimulating the more than 52,000 comments on the web about Stephen Elop's now notorious and brutally honest "burning platform" memo.

The damp squib this year was Apple, the one major firm which - consistently - does not participate in the conference, picking up only 8% of online discussion connected with the event.

And unlike in previous years, perhaps because of Steve Jobs's ill health, the firm did not put out a major announcement timed to suck up all the oxygen.

The company gathered most interest around talk that protypes of the new iPhone 5 include a version with a slide-out keyboard.

Among the mobile brands, Fisheye research suggests that HTC did best out of the industry get-together, earning the biggest media uplift during the event, and seeing its products take all of the top three rankings among new offerings.

As for the platforms, the story was something of a foregone conclusion, with Android taking up more than 50% of cyber-talk - something it manages to do even without the conference's help.

Credit: BBC (www.bbc.co.uk)