automotive snapshot

July 2012 | Confidential

Automotive Social Performance micro snapshot view

automotive social performance

Contents Preface 3 Community Benchmarks 5 Brand Asset Benchmarks 10 Hyundai 11 Mitsubishi 18 Scion 25 Best Practices Sampled 32 Conclusions 41 Appendices 43 Keyword Filters 44 Social Index Scoring 45


Preface

This micro snapshot view of the automotive industry is intended to

review how several select automobile manufacturers are building a

social media community to serve the Generation Y demographic.

The quick analysis conducted is developed to gauge current social

media and content marketing performance based on a small data

sampling, and is not intended to be used as material intelligence for

developing strategic direction without added discovery, data points

and analysis.

The three Brand manufacturers selected (Scion, Mitsubishi and

Hyundai) have been chosen based on Generation Y’s Brand

preferences as published in a 2011 TrueCar.com consumer study

that revealed manufacturer Brand and model preference. (Survey

data by TrueCar.com was collected throughout 2009 and 2010 with

the results published in 2011.)

Filters chosen for collecting valid data points were designed to

leverage purchasing attributes of Generation Y’s automotive buying

behavior, while maintaining a small sample size. More

comprehensive views can be applied with the scope expanded to

include a broader social media view (channels, languages and

geographies) with additional manufacturers and/or model specific

analysis. However, for purposes of this exercise, the filters used

included:

Social Channels Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

Brands (inclusions)

Scion

Mitsubishi

Hyundai

Focus: Conversations, engagement and execution

Analysis Depth: Broad general study

Analysis Duration: 30 days

Analysis Geography: USA

Analysis Language: English

Highest Percentage of Gen Y Buyers by Brand

Rank Brands 18-27 1 Scion 21.2% 2 Mitsubishi 20.3% 3 Mazda 10.7% 4 Nissan 9.8% 5 Volkswagen 9.6% 6 Kia 9.1% 7 Hyundai 8.6% 8 Honda 8.0% 9 Toyota 7.6%

10 Subaru 7.3%


Gen Y Purchasing Criteria - Hot Buttons

Over riding buying criteria o Fuel efficiency and connectivity

Cost of ownership

o Compact, Mid-Size Sedans to Small SUVs o Low / moderate cost o High fuel economy - MPG ratings o Electric / Hybrid (50% willing to pay up to $300 more per

mile) Features

o Exterior - Customization (personality and styling)

o Interior

- Personalization options (with optional later upgrades)

o Connectivity / Technology - Rich in-dash technology - Touch screen interfaces and infotainment systems - USB device port connectivity - iPod, tablet and smartphone integration - Online internet and social applications and

connections (e.g., twitter feeds, audio streaming, navigation)

- Voice, touch and steering wheel controls

o Safety bundles / features (e.g. collision-avoidance systems, blind-spot detection and sleep alert systems)

It should be noted that to enhance Brand awareness, preference, loyalty and advocacy within this demographic requires

delivering purposeful and meaningful content that is appealing to Generation Y with a concentrated and committed emphasis for

engaging in community dialogue.

This analysis seeks to initially uncover how the chosen manufacturers are performing based on these core primary objectives.

For more information or clarification on observations made within this analysis, please contact

Daniel McKean, Digital Brand Analyst, 949 338 4762, or via email at

[email protected].


Community Activity Benchmarks


Share of Voice (select peers)

Observation: These simple metrics (measured by number of Posts) reveal there is a robust ongoing social discussion. Hyundai (ranked 7th in consumer preference among Generation Y) represents a greater volume within the overall discussion over the two leading preferred Auto Manufacturer Brands.† Taking a view across each social channel, the trend remains reasonably constant with minor variations relative to share of voice percentages.

† Based on keyword filters selected. Common keyword filters were used across all Brands within the analysis to maintain data integrity.

CCoommmmuunniittyy AAccttiivviittyy


Discussion & Sentiment

Social Channel: Facebook Geography: United States

Discussion:

The general conversation across Facebook related to the select auto brands is mostly random where mentions referencing the Brand or car model are within everyday casual conversations. Facebook is also a channel where a large number of active community members use it as a forum to sell vehicles – either through individual ‘Friend’ bases or via local auto reseller Fan Pages. Mitsubishi owners of the three compared Brands are the most active in listing their vehicles for resale.

Sentiment:

Of the small data sample, consumers do appear to be willing to share their opinions, happiness and loyalty across Facebook. Sentiments vary among the three selected auto Brands with a noticeable negative difference associated with Mitsubishi. Of the small data sampling taken, it appears Scion owners are the most vocal re: loyalty and happiness with their brand of choice and car model -- and are more willing to express their positive sentiments.

Observation:

Engagement within the community discussion outside of the Brand Facebook property using these casual mentions may be difficult, but collectively monitoring these conversations may be used to serve as a temperature gauge for overall community sentiment relative to a specific Brand or model. If deeper analysis proves to validate these early findings, it would be proposed a Brand’s resources be concentrated on the Brand’s Facebook properties with only occasional consideration for monitoring the random community discussion.



Discussion & Sentiment

Social Channel: Twitter Geography: United States

Discussion:

Casual brand mentions, brand enthusiast opinions, and resellers are common within the Twitter casual community discussion. However, Twitter is also a channel where consumers express negative opinions and the auto brands are not immune as a small percentage of the sampled discussions do reveal unhappy consumers.

Sentiment:

It becomes apparent even with the small sample size that Scion owners are more willing to share their happiness concerning their cars. They are generally more vocal and appear to be more loyal to their chosen models. Scion also ranks high with favorable nods towards the manufacturer’s styling with minimal buzz surrounding the new FR-S model.

Observation:

The conversations taking place across Twitter independently of the Brand do offer opportunities to engage with the community unlike the preliminary results found with Facebook. Upon deeper analysis, it may be revealed that Twitter offers a more robust channel for Branding by taking a proactive stance to engage in the general community discussion and to share content outside of a Brand’s own Twitter profile. Furthermore, within the casual Twitter conversation, opportunities may be ripe for identifying and cultivating Brand Ambassadors.



Content & Sentiment

Social Channel: YouTube Geography: United States

Content:

A wide assortment of Branded promotional content and commercials, editorial reviews, car enthusiast reviews, road rally car meets, sponsored Nitro Circus style stunt videos, enthusiast random street scenes (drifting, stunts, race track testing, drag racing), car shows, car meets, car clubs, independent reseller & service, enthusiast car modifications, car care products, video game and remote control car model representations.

Most videos in the overall ‘community’ segment are produced as amateur or semi-professional videos without a great deal of storyboarding, creativity or production technique. Exceptions are present with Branded, sponsored and editorial videos. Commonplace across YouTube is the overuse of Meta tags, which is a practice that groups large numbers of non-specific topical tags together. This practice is often done to drive more traffic to the video even if the video does not contain content relevant to the tag itself. It should be noted that YouTube has become more sophisticated by counting views to maintain integrity in the counts when community members bounce early after discovering content does not map to mislabeled videos. Sentiment:

YouTube is a social channel which at times is hard to gauge sentiments. Unless the video resonates strongly with a viewer, the viewer is apt to not take any action to rate (like or dislike), share or favorite (playlist) a video. The videos sampled in this snapshot view did not stimulate any measureable viewer response levels; however, a quick exercise to widen the view demonstrated future research should be able to easily identify the trends that produce the strongest viewer appeal, engagement and influence.

Observation:

Overall, the largest content producers are from the editorial community. Car reviews and road tests are popular and are among the highest viewed videos. Other popular video formats do include Branded promotional content and Gen Y oriented sponsored videos in the general production style theme of Nitro Circus. Less popular, but in abundance, car enthusiast videos provide a steady stream of fresh content. One note - there are a great number of local reseller and service videos, but they receive virtually no views and are produced independently. They may be more appealing if Brands offered co-opted ‘template’ promotional content to local dealers, which relevant local visuals, locations, sales and contact information could be inserted.



Brand Benchmarks


facebook.com/hyundai Active Since: 3/16/09 Fans: 401,595 Last 7 days: 20,405 (+5.35%) Last 30 days: 52,053 (+14.89%) Daily Posts: 1 Most Pop. Wk: 2/19/12 Most Pop. Age: 18-24

30-Day Post Engagement Likes: 27,986 (+170.3%) Comments: 2,405 (+83.0%) Shares: 4,236 (+161.6%) Other Hyundai Accounts

Hyundai Worldwide, Hyundai India, Hyundai Saudi | ةيدوعسلا يادنويه, Hyundai Ecuador, Hyundai Australia, Hyundai España, Hyundai, Hyundai Canada, Hyundai Veloster, (50+ more)

Observations (metric revelations):

Largest Fan base of the three Brands analyzed. Recent push for new Fans, but with some inconsistency to maintain momentum.

Fan interaction growing with small periods of dips where ‘Likes’ is the most prevalent method for interaction (a 171% increase over the previous 30 days). Shares are on the upswing with a 161% increase over the last 30 days. Comments show slight growth. All may be indicative to visual content appeal.

Visual content largely appeals to the targeted demographic. There is a large number of Facebook properties, which may require reviewing overall strategic intent via a needs

analysis exercise.

BBrraanndd AAsssseett


53

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE

MAX SOCIAL INDEX SCORE 100

Facebook Scorecard Overview

Strategic Intent: Highly visual for sales promotional purposes with emerging efforts being applied to community building elements.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 10 10 7 10 2 8 3 3



Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Strong visual content to appeal to younger demographic. Good use of pinning and highlighting. There is a moderate variety of content including lots of car model photos, sweepstakes, polling, sales events and promotions, campaigns (fuel efficiency campaign). Content publishing appears to be pre-planned according to a schedule. There is daily fresh content. Fan growth is growing consistently with Fan interaction growing over last 30 days in all categories. It appears there is a strong experimentation with custom Apps and use. Efforts are underway to engage the community in a deeper discussion via community building techniques (polling, question and answer, non-promotional conversational starters). Good and frequent rotation of timeline photos.

Weaknesses: Although executing well, there could be more efforts to get closer to the community through conversation. Content is appealing, but more of it and a richer variety would be more impacting. Discovery did find video links in Veloster Twitter App were not working.

Frequency & Amplitude: Average one pre-planned post per day. Maintaining a consistent flow of fresh, daily content.

Engaged Followers: Fans are engaging with greater interactivity in all categories.

Rescinded Engagement: Missed opportunities to frequently engage and reinforce Brand enthusiast comments leading to greater Brand loyalty and advocacy.

Content Appeal: Good overall appeal by using images, photos and video. Content is produced well to appeal to the younger generation.

Social Integration: Concentrated efforts to integrate other social media assets by providing links in content and asking for a CTA (call to action).

Administrative Management: Community manager present and is actively engaged.



@hyundai Active Since: 3/09

Tweets: 4,565 Daily Avg: 5.2 Following: 8,107 Followers: 33,839

Aggregated Monthly Tweets



65

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE


Twitter Scorecard Overview

Strategic Intent: Sharing information and links, high degree of promotional content, service and customer care support, while reinforcing community goodwill and advocacy through some engagement.

Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Branded account, good volume of RTs and reciprocal RTs, #FFs, and sharing follower content. Brand is responsive to customer care and suggestion tweets. There is some use of Lists with better use of favorites to highlight select conversations. Tweets routinely share pics – both Branded and follower. There is the use of Twitter chats.

Weaknesses: Possibly a richer variety of content with more non-promotional conversational starters.

Frequency & Amplitude: Average 5.2 tweets per day. Community is active and engaging.

Engaged Followers: Followers are engaged sharing content while entering into dialog.

Rescinded Engagement: High levels of community building through engaging conversation, #FF and sharing of content.

Content Appeal: Content lacks full engagement appeal and is overtly promotional. Could add greater variety and more conversational starters.

Social Integration: Taking opportunities to highlight other social channels.

Administrative Management: Community manager is active and engaged. Executing well.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 10 10 10 10 10 8 3 4



youtube.com/hyundai Active Since: 10/11/07 Subscribers: 40,719 Videos: 333 Video Views: 21,638,787 (All 2012 Superbowl Commercials) 1ST Highest 4,508,917

2ND Highest 3,351,401

3RD Highest 1,403,012

Lowest Count: 383 (Hope on Wheels) Playlists: 16 Other YouTube Properties

HyundaiWorldwide – 2,360 subscribbers, 177 uploaded

videos

HyundaiCanada – 284 subscibers, 26 uploaded videos hyundaiworldcup

HYUNDAIMOTOREUROPE – 520 subscribers, 65 uploaded videos

HyundaiSpain – 225 subscribers, 191 uploaded videos

ChannelHyundai – 464 subscribers, 153 uploaded videos



62

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE


YouTube Scorecard Overview

Strategic Intent: A social destination to showcase promotional and other informational asset content. Also strategically built as a community builder by enabling car owners to share and upload their own opinions on video.

Execution & Focus: Branded channel with good easy to navigate layout. Frequent, fresh content. A wide assortment of content and production styles. True community building features via custom consumer-rich embedded applications.

Frequency & Amplitude: Consistent frequency of uploads with moderate average amplitude (10s thousands view counts).

Engaged Followers: The community is active and engaged with comments, moderate to high counts in Likes / Dislikes, sharing op/ed content.

Rescinded Engagement: None evident.

Content Appeal: Wide selection of content. Well produced.

Social Integration: Socially integrated quite well for all major Brand asset social platforms. Easy to discover links.

Administrative Management: Community manager present as a content manager, but no visible signs of actually reinforcing the community through public engagement.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 10 10 10 12 3 10 5 2



facebook.com/mitsubishi Active Since: 12/20/07 Fans: 384,449 Last 7 days: 4,647 (+1.2%) Last 30 days: 17,890 (+4.9%) Daily Posts: 1.5 (average) Most Pop. Wk: 2/26/12 Most Pop. Age: 18-24

30-Day Post Engagement Likes: 52,158 (+41.1%) Comments: 1,148 (-15.0%) Shares: 4,989 (+40.9%) Other Mitsubishi Accounts

Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, MITSUBISHI MIRAGE, Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia - Official, Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Motors Canada, Mitsubishi España, Mitsubishi EVO, Mitsubishi Lancer EVO X, Mitsubishi Motors GR, Mitsubishi Motors in the UK, Mitsubishi Motors México, Mitsubishi Motors Australia, Mitsubishi Pajero Sport India, Mitsubishi Romania, (50+ more)


Small Fan base but with recent spike and consistent daily Fan growth. Fan interaction growing with majority of engagement via ‘Likes’ to content – flat line comment growth. Recent content heavily fixated on photos and links with few video assets that should be appealing to demographic. Large number of Facebook properties undoubtedly fracturing community – overall strategic intent needs analysis.



37

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: Strategy is linked to Information / news sharing, sales promotions, reliving historic moments, and reinforcing its community via sharing submitted content.

Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Good general overall execution which is consistent with a clear focus based on current strategic direction. Content appears to be pre-planned and managed. Experimenting with custom Apps, but could do more. Mitsubishi does allow Fans to post content to reinforce community spirit. There is daily fresh content which generates moderate resonance and interactivity.

Weaknesses: Poor execution with Apps in App windows with too few and not an appealing assortment. Poor execution with pinning and highlighting with missed opportunities and leverage. Timeline photos are rotated, but could be more done more frequently with greater consumer appeal. No commitment to more frequently rescind engagement via comments (surprisingly absent). No use of video assets which is a missed opportunity. No cross promotion of other social media assets other than links in the information section. Brand personality (persona) missing. Scores of multiple Mitsubishi Facebook assets may fracture the community and constrain Brand efforts to be more engaging.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 8 6 7 5 2 5 2 2



Frequency & Amplitude: Average 1.5 posts per day. Maintaining a consistent flow of fresh, daily content – albeit on the low scale for appeal.

Engaged Followers: Fans are moderately engaging with Likes, comments and shares. Comment counts are down over the last 30 days.

Rescinded Engagement: Missed opportunity to be more engaging and to develop greater interactivity.

Content Appeal: Primarily visual photo content with frequent links to other online web content. Content lacks greater appeal for targeted demographic.

Social Integration: Minimal with links listed in the About information section.

Administrative Management: Community manager present to manage publishing content, but appears to missing to build an active community.



@mitsucars Active Since: 9/09

Tweets: 1,287 Daily Avg: 2.5 Following: 183 Followers: 16,531

Global Regional Accounts

@MitsubishiCAN , @MitsubishiUK , @MitsubishiPress , @Mitsubishi_ES , (+ more global locales)




42

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: Sharing information and links, high degree of promotional content, service and customer care support, while reinforcing community goodwill and advocacy through some engagement.

Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Branded account. Good minimal overall execution. Good response to consumer tweets either for customer care issues or for reinforcing Brand advocacy.

Weaknesses: Low follower count. There are a large number of RTs for Mitsubishi accounts and special interests without more consideration to the Brand enthusiast. Customer Care issues, although professionally addressed, potentially reveal a problem area for manufacturer. Does not Favorite tweets or use Lists. Also, there is a poor follower to following ratio with missed opportunities to identify and cultivate Brand ambassadors.

Frequency & Amplitude: Average 2.5 tweets per day. Moderate active community discussion related to Brand and car models.

Engaged Followers: Followers are engaged sharing photo content and using channel as a support mechanism for all things related to Mitsubishi cars.

Rescinded Engagement: Good overall timely use of @replies.. Moderate attempts to expand discussions with request for photos, additional comments and opinions.

Content Appeal: Content lacks full engagement appeal and is overtly promotional. Could add greater variety and more conversational starters.

Social Integration: Some, but few promotional links to other social assets and properties.

Administrative Management: Community manager is active and involved. Lacks some sophistication in building the community.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 7 7 7 7 5 5 2 2



youtube.com/mitsubishicars Active Since: 9/18/06 Subscribers: 2,280 Videos: 171 Video Views: 2,115,020 (All New Model Promo videos) 1ST Highest 312,274 2ND Highest 141,006 3RD Highest 121,119

Lowest Count: 266 (sales promo) Playlists: 27 Other YouTube Properties MitsubishiMotorsAu (Australia) – 529 subscribers, 84 video uploads

MitsubishiTV (UK) – 702 subscribers, 41 video uploads

MitsubishiMotors (Spain) – 2,719 subscribers, 310 video uploads



29

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: Used as a social destination more as a depository of assets versus community building. Content visually showcase car models, features, and styling.

Execution & Focus: Non-Branded channel using standard available format. Updated with multiple video uploads per month. Use of sponsored and paid Brand Ambassadors. Frequent use of multiple video variations based on same production / storyboard theme. Video appeal is lacking given a younger demographic.

Frequency & Amplitude: Consistent frequency of uploads with low amplitude (view counts).

Engaged Followers: Low, but consistent video view counts on large number of uploaded videos. Low number of additional interactivity including viewer Likes, shares, playlist adds.

Rescinded Engagement: No user engagement to Comments, Likes and shares.

Content Appeal: Content lacks overall appeal. Most productions are PrimeTime TV-like commercials with little to marginal visual appeal for a younger demographic.

Social Integration: None evident.

Administrative Management: Community manager present to upload videos with no community building efforts.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 5 5 7 5 2 5 0 2



facebook.com/scion

Active Since: 3/23/10 Fans: 123,324 Last 7 days: 1,200 (+0.98%) Last 30 days: 6,551 (+5.61%) Daily Posts: 1 Most Pop. Wk: 7/08/12 Most Pop. Age: 18-24

30-Day Post Engagement Likes: 7,056 (+152.0%) Comments: 423 (+42.2%) Shares: 833 (+58.8%) Other Scion Accounts

scionreleaseseries, scionracing, scionav, scionavmetal, scionavgarage, scioninstallation


Reasonably small, but engaged Fan base. Inconsistent, small incremental steady Fan growth. Interaction levels mirror peaks and valleys in Fan growth indicating legacy Fans may not be as interactive and

engaging. Content relies on heavy use of visuals (both photos and video) to appeal to target demographic which generates large

numbers of ‘Likes’, but comment (discussion) threads remain low. Possible missed opportunity to strengthen Facebook community via consolidation of Facebook assets.



46

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: There exists a clear visible strategy for Information / news sharing using visual content to engage the community with minimal efforts applied for building a thriving community.

Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Good general overall execution – consistent with clear focus based on current strategic direction. Visibly planned approach. Custom App use. Highly visual. Leveraging pinning and highlight features. Allows Fans to post content to wall. Rotations (updates) of Timeline photos. One planned post per day (average) generating good resonance and engagement. Consistent frequency of daily posts using a variety of information and branding content with heavy use of photos and video (racing series, marketing promos, contests/giveaways, music content collaborations, editorial, teaser intros, new car intro photo albums, dashboard audio system, service promos, game app integration, merchandising). Good informational App selection: photos (good selection and organization), new car intros (custom, linked to YouTube channel), dealer locator, special financing & offers, customer service, Scion branded mobile and web app. Subscription button within custom new car intro Apps to subscribe to YouTube channel.

Weaknesses: No commitment to more frequently rescind engagement via comments (majority of comments do not warrant response, but opportunities are overlooked to respond). No cross promotion leveraging content across other social assets including Twitter and YouTube. Little experimentation for building increased community engagement via conversation beyond Likes with no Brand personality (persona). Missed opportunity to promote other Scion Branded Facebook Pages (links buried in About section) without consideration for inclusion in App windows or periodic promotion on Wall. Strategically, seven different Scion Facebook locations may fracture the community and constrain efforts by the Brand to be more engaging. Inconsistent ‘Net’ steady Fan (Like) growth.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 10 10 7 5 3 7 2 2



Frequency & Amplitude: Average 1 post per day. Maintaining a consistent flow of fresh, daily content.

Engaged Followers: Fans are engaged by interacting with the shared content. Most engagement is via ‘Likes’ with smaller numbers of comments and shares. There does appear to be month over month growth in interactivity.

Rescinded Engagement: Brand engagement to interactivity is minimal with few successful conversational starters. Conversational themes do not provide opportunities for Scion to engage.

Content Appeal: Primarily visual content for demographic uses topics ranging from car photos and road test videos, to promotions, video game car model inclusions, sponsored racing and drifting teams, merchandising, influencer testimonials (Jay Leno), and editorial reviews. Varying online / offline links and information available via website, dealer locator, financing, Facebook assets, and customer service.

Social Integration: Facebook properties are listed and there are YouTube links embedded in custom new car Apps. Video content is typically hosted on YouTube, but Scion does not promote channel. Other social property assets not promoted.

Administrative Management: Community manager is active on a base level without deeper community (engagement) building efforts.



@Scion Active Since: 9/09

Tweets: 1,544 Daily Avg: 2.5 Following: 5,459 Followers: 14,527

Global Regional Accounts

@ScionRacing, @ScionAV, @ScionCanada, @ScionxCHANGE, @xPressionism, @scionsessions, @scionstaffing,

(more)




62

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: Sharing information and links, and building community goodwill and advocacy through engagement.

Execution & Focus:

Strengths: Branded account. Good general overall execution – consistent with clear focus based on current strategic direction. Recent renewed effort with greater number of tweets. Favorites community enthusiast tweets. Good concerted effort and liberal use of @replies and RTs to build community engagement.

Weaknesses: Low follower count. Respectable but low follower to following ratio. No use of Lists to isolate key influencers and potential brand ambassadors.

Frequency & Amplitude: Average 2.5 tweets per day. Active community discussion related to Brand and car models.

Engaged Followers: Engaged. Good overall use of RTs, @replies, discussions and likes, which reinforces a higher degree of cultivating the community discussion to stimulate engagement .

Rescinded Engagement: Recent aggressive posture. Full engagement.

Content Appeal: More about community building reinforcing community enthusiast opinions. Some information sharing, but main intent appears to be reinforcement of positive consumer opinions.

Social Integration: Few if any cross promotion with other social properties and assets – with the exception of occasional sharing of links to content.

Administrative Management: Community manager is active and involved. High level of commitment to build the discussion.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 12 10 10 7 10 7 2 4



youtube.com/scion Active Since: 1/16/06 Subscribers: 3,764 Videos: 100 Video Views: 13,349,841 (All Scion | iQ videos) 1ST Highest 1,223,532

2ND Highest 1,143,397

3RD Highest 1,131,044

Lowest Count: 912 (service) Playlists: 96 Other YouTube Properties

Scion Racing – 2,623 subscribers, 138 uploaded videos . Scion A/V – 4,445 subscribers, 1,398 uploaded videos



57

SOCIAL INDEX SCORE



Strategic Intent: Used as a social destination to visually showcase car models, features, and styling, while serving as a host depository for reference-able assets.

Execution & Focus: Nicely branded and integrated custom Branded channels. Updated with frequent fresh content which garners moderate to high view counts. Organized well and for easy discovery. Appears to be more heavily used and leveraged over the last year than in previous years.

Frequency & Amplitude: Consistent frequency of uploads with moderate amplitude (view counts).

Engaged Followers: Beyond video views, consistent level of low engagement with likes, shares, playlist adds and comments.

Rescinded Engagement: YouTube is historically a channel a Brand has difficulty engaging with the community with little user engagement beyond the video view. Comments, shares remain low.

Content Appeal: Promotional videos produced well for maintaining engagement. Commercial value, but entertaining.

Social Integration: Excellent cross promotion of other online and social assets via custom built Branded channel. Easy click-thrus to Facebook and Twitter, as well as for web content featuring links to specific car models. Nicely done. Scion gets it – by adding in CTAs (call to action) in their videos. Few Brands add information for consumers to navigate to for other informational sources and Scion does take the opportunity on occasion to easily find ways to integrate such information into their videos.

Administrative Management: Community manager present without visible evidence of growing the community.

Strategic

Intent (15)

Execution & Focus

(15)

Frequency Amplitude

(15)

Engaged Followers

(15)

Rescinded

Engagement (15)

Content Appeal

(15)

Social

Integration (5)

Admin Mgm’t

(5)

SCORE 10 10 10 7 3 10 4 3



Best Practices

Sampled


Sampled Best Practices

Branding

Periodically, conduct branding exercises to review strategic use and objectives of all global and regional assets, consolidate where possible to use language and location posting filters. Offers the benefit of leveraging Facebook communities for building and managing a Global Brand presence, while reducing corporate, redundancy, resources and budget.

For added Branding, consider Branded URL shorteners and domains and avoid using generic or source shortened links.

Content Management

Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the Facebook content as possible and publish according to a master programming schedule.

Keep Posts Short and Timely -- keeping the post length to less than 250 characters generates the most interaction and engagement. According to Facebook, posts of this length generate 60% more likes, comments and shares than posts greater than 250 characters.

Post photos, video and quotes – high definition photos and videos in graphic detail and vivid color provide engagement levels that far exceed plain and simple text. Visual elements for other content related posts are equally as important as the visual appeal of the content is likely to generate more interest and engagement in news feeds.

Timeline cover photo – a recent eye-tracking study revealed consumers pay far more attention to the cover photo than any other post on the wall. Always carefully design and use eye-popping, high-res Branded images and photos for timeline photos.

Studies also show the timeline cover photo should be swapped out frequently for sustaining interest and appeal.

The second most viewed area on the new Timeline format is the App windows where order and selection of the Apps displayed is almost as equally as important as the cover photo.

Facebook


Post consistently – educational or entertaining content will not be seen as over sharing or too promoting using a good rule of thumb based on having one marketing message for every nine to ten informational posts.

Ask for Fan opinions – aside from conveying to consumers their opinions count and are welcome, crowd sourcing specifications and features may go a long way in Brand loyalty and new product introductions.

Ask questions using the FB Questions App – using the native questions app that is very easy to use (a vote can be one click) in place of a Polling App can be used for a host of entertainment or business intelligence purposes.

Experiment with Fill-In-The-Blank posts – the approach offers a very simple way for Fans to engage with a post by asking them to finish a sentence, Fill-in-the-blank posts generate about 90% more engagement than the average post.

Highlight and Pin the best weekly posts – pin to the top one post per week and highlight several others posts each week for maximum exposure.

Give Fans access to exclusive information – reinforcing why a Fan should be a ‘Fan’, this technique is used by either breaking news first on Facebook or providing special content such as a video or an article when they “like” your page.

Reward Fans with deals and perks – increase Brand loyalty with frequent offers exclusive to the Facebook community.

Localize posts relevant to specific audiences – to get closer to targeted community audiences, posts can be directed to a subset of Fans, or geographies and languages using available posting and geo-targeting filters.

Produce all content with consideration according to specifications to display well for all media, especially mobile.

Frequently cross pollinate new and existing (re-purpose) social assets across all social properties leading to greater content volume, appeal and engagement. However, be specific and manage goals and objectives associated for each social channel.

Put a face on the Brand customer – showcase once a month (or more frequently), a consumer and an application story for a select car model for greater Brand appeal.

Build an App or use a tool (e.g., NorthSocial) to organize Facebook videos into topical categories to allow Fans to find videos of interest easily – much in the style of YouTube.

Use this approach to keep content fresh and re-promote over the video lifecycle by selectively adding previously posted videos back into the master programming (publishing) schedule.

Influencer Marketing

Identify the Brand Ambassadors and key influencers who like to share on Facebook and cultivate relationships to develop exclusive advance content which they can share with their own networks ahead of public sharing.

Convert the small number of Super Influencers into potentially paid ambassadors with more exclusivity, appreciation gestures and VIP status to support all Branding efforts.


Manage the Facebook property by being responsive to as much as possible the community likes, comments, shares and Fan posts to acknowledge engagement on a personal level to build and reinforce Brand loyalty and advocacy.

Reward Facebook Fans for greater community engagement by offering exclusive rewards for feedback, purchases and referrals. Rewards are ranked second for building Brand loyalty (US Internet Users study, Mar 2012).

Be an active community denizen by ‘Liking’ and sharing relevant industry news, partner news, events and resources.

Use the new capability for Categorizing ‘Likes” for easy Fan discovery (Springpad).

Community Building

Stimulate conversations with a rich variety of unique daily content (informational, educational, promotional, and entertainment) – keep the conversation fresh and appealing. Rule of thumb is one marketing message to every 8 or 9 informational posts.

Consider Apps to engage consumers who have input on product design, specs, needs, ideas to foster community input into new car models.

Almost half of all online customers expect to receive customer support on Facebook - consider building a custom, easy-to-use Support Tab to filter inquiries and concerns directly into internal support structures.

Experimentation

Experiment with Post schedules, content and frequency of posts according to when and how often each day to measure the average lifespan (post impressions in the news feed) of a single post (tools such as PageLever and other methodologies exist to analyze peak performance of posts).

According to research conducted by Bit.ly, Facebook’s optimal posting times are slightly different than Twitter. Links sent between 1:00 p.m. and 4:00 p.m. get the most traction, with Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. being the best week time to post.

Continually research, analyze and define industry best practices. Research, define and analyze aspirational brands (in and out of the auto industry) to stir creativity and to leverage successful best practices.

Experiment with Facebook’s suite of new Ad tools – a study by All Facebook in January revealed that a post on a Brand Page is seen by just 17% of Fans, new Ad tools such as Reach Generator and Sponsored Stories manipulate the news feed algorithm to expose fans to content when they otherwise would have missed it with visibility results increasing into high double digit percentages.



Branding

Periodically conduct branding exercises to review and refine purpose and use (goals and objectives) for each Twitter account – modify accounts and their use based on continual review and best practices.

Use and re-use unique custom domain and tracking domain Bit.ly URL shorteners to better brand and identify content and destinations.

Content Management

Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the twitter content as possible and publish according to a master programming calendar.

Re-purpose, produce and publish content according to a master programming schedule.

Frequently cross promote new and existing (re-purpose) social assets across all social properties leading to greater content volume, appeal and engagement.

Use bit.lys in contest tweets to link contest rules and parameters to avoid misinterpretations without sacrificing character count and to overcome perceptions of ill-explained contest rules.

Build Lists for community value, easy reference and as value-added resources (official Twitter profiles, top-tier editorial, key industry influencers, industry news outlets, channel / reseller partners, etc.)

Post interesting articles – to build interest and a stronger community following, curate relevant and interesting industry content from third parties.

Share useful resources – share resources and/or services which would be of value to the customer base.

Share blog posts – stimulate clicks to blog content and occasionally share older blog posts to keep posts fresh based on community value and/or to reinforce topics of interest and high appeal.

Twitter


Post inspirational industry related quotes – research shows quotes are typically well received; find interesting quotes that speak to and are of value to the community without using them as content filler.

Highlight staff members – occasionally take the opportunity to talk about members of the staff to personalize the company and reinforce the Brand persona.

Share breaking news related to industry – stay on top of industry news and tweet it as it breaks to demonstrate the Brand is a valued resource for news.

Announce upcoming events – tweet to stimulate attendance, add a human aspect to the Brand, and provide goodwill to other event participants through added exposure.

Offer frequent, consistent useful car care tips and related category products – adds community value, while reinforcing Brand’s expertise.

Provide real-time updates of behind the scenes activities – used on occasion, provide casual ‘behind the scenes’ updates on staff, events, products, causes to offer a glimpse inside the Brand.

Promote partnerships – reinforce loyalty among partners by sharing websites, content and links to generate new followers and build goodwill – over time they may reciprocate the gesture further expanding the Brand community.

Reinforce Twitter contests with exclusives – reward followers with exclusive contests, discount offers or giveaways that are structured so contest ‘stalkers’ are minimized.

Continue to share pictures of staff members, contest winners, events and more – tweeting more pictures and visual content adds to the interest and appeal of individual tweets and keeps routine tweeting fresh and interesting.

Find opportunities to entertain – people enjoy entertaining content and taking the opportunity on occasion to tweet about amusing or entertaining content can be well received if offered in good taste, and which does not detract from the Brand and/or its image.

Continue to build the brand persona – take opportunities to humanize the Brand whenever possible by searching for interesting and inspirational internal stories such as personal accomplishments (running a marathon) or new births, promotions and more.

Influencer Marketing

Identify existing key influencers already following to develop Influencer Marketing campaigns – identify, cultivate and build relationships with other industry key influencers as well as programs for Brand Ambassadors.


Community Building

Stimulate conversations with an assortment of unique, daily content (informational, educational, promotional, and entertainment) – keep the conversation fresh and appealing.

Engage the community by stimulating the conversation with frequent @replies, RTs and DMs.

Favorite all tweets and conversations that positively represent the Brand so they are easily discoverable.

Consider creating an account reserved for consumers to exchange ideas for product design, specs, needs, ideas.

Build anticipation into tweet schedules with replicable ‘Tent Pole’ events, programs, campaigns – continue to develop replicable activities on a daily, weekly or monthly basis that build anticipation and engagement . Continually measure and refine based on community engagement and receptance levels.

As part of List building, suggest who to follow (e.g., channel partners, blogs, RSS feeds) – provide added value to the community to direct followers to sources of industry-related information.

Ask relevant questions – to stimulate engagement and to mine intelligence, frequently ask followers to provide opinions and insight via @replies responses or taking a poll – and then reach out for each engagement to acknowledge them as a valued consumer and follower.

Thank and respond to followers – as a step in community building, take every opportunity to thank followers for something they shared, commented or simply for following to demonstrate appreciation on an individual, personalized level.

#FF – be an active and good community member by using the Twitter community practice of #FollowFriday to occasionally recommend people to follow.

Experimentation

Experiment with Tweet schedules according to the best times to tweet each day when followers are most active (various tools are available to analyze community activity).

Continually research, analyze and define industry best practices. Research, define and analyze aspirational brands (in and out of the auto industry) to stir creativity and to leverage successful best practices.

Develop KPIs and metrics for consumer engagement, experience and resulting change sentiments based on implementing identified ‘best practices’. Track and measure change and continually refine for higher benchmarks.



Branding

Visually Re-Brand Channels as a “Brand Channel” for greater visual appeal and for cross promotion of links and calls to actions / clicks to other online content, assets and social properties.

Optimize videos by experimenting with and refining tags, descriptions, thumbnails, titles, subtitles for easy discovery within the YouTube community (use terminology YouTube members would use to search).

Content Management & Production

Value, not promotion – produce videos to tell the Brand / Product story using consumer touch points: pains, challenges, and/or aspirations.

Quality over quantity – maintain a high production value to reinforce Brand image.

Create a balance of content that is unique, compelling, entertaining and informative (brand, product, educational, entertainment).

Create and upload eye-catching, high-resolution thumbnails to attract video viewers.

Optimize the first 15 seconds of each video to create immediate interest and appeal.

Take the opportunity to include CTAs (call to action) in each video – experiment with annotations.

Offer a good balance of variety and assortment of content to create community appeal. Produce videos to be leveraged and re-purposed across multi-channels and consumer devices.

Use video series vs. longer length productions to maintain interest and appeal.

Experiment and use latest video production techniques such as Interactive Video (branching story lines, interactive scenes, overlay information) to increase viewer appeal and engagement.

YouTube


Leverage and isolate interesting and compelling video frame images into a series of images to cross promote (with a shelf life) on other social channels linking images back to YouTube channel for higher view and engagement counts.

Programming calendar – pre-plan as much of the YouTube content as possible and publish according to a master programming calendar.

Increase productions targeted at younger consumer demographics using up tempo, high energy, music video style action shorts, teasers and series (Team Tempest style). Ideal for video, music, photo, image consumer applications.

Continue productions of promos / ad shorts historically producing high view counts – use opportunity to entertain as well as to educate.

Increase productions of entertaining short Brand teaser videos with unusual visual content used to entertain as well as to inform .

Identify channels with similar or complementary content and/or relevant audiences to cultivate cross promotion and collaborative opportunities.

Organize content using playlists into video sets to show separation of themed content to improve navigation and increase the number of views.

‘Like’ and ‘favorite’ own Brand videos on the Brand channel several times in timely increments within the first 24 hours after uploading to have the activity appear in subscriber news feeds.

Community Building

Explore the YouTube community and engage, subscribe, like, comment on related videos and topics (participate with others and make friends).

Cross promote across other online properties (web and social) – create a video blog.

Design a click path to always include call or click to action within videos for cross promotion.

Track, measure, identify and continually refine best practices using the Insights analytic tool – replicate.

Experimentation

Use Analytics to better understand the audience, improve content and to aid in developing or refining effective programming and production strategies.

Write detailed and comprehensive metadata following proper formatting and guidelines optimizing titles, tags, and descriptions for content (think what community members would use in searches) in order for YouTube to index the content which is critical to building views from YouTube’s search and suggested videos algorithm.

Explore aspirational brands to glean compelling techniques and uses as a source of stimulating continual creative and approaches.


Conclusions


SOCIAL INDEX SCORES


The qu ick ana lys is conduc ted for the th ree se lec ted Brands revea l each Brand i s per forming f rom bo th s t reng ths and weaknesses . Hyunda i and Sc ion c lear ly are more soph is t i ca ted and fur ther a long in the i r p ract i ce o f soc ia l med ia over the Mi tsub ish i legacy Brand.

A l l th ree Brands have ample measure to improve the i r e f fo r ts . F rom the smal l da ta sample , Facebook appears to be the weakes t l ink in the overa l l m ix . A l though each Brand i s de l i ver ing a hos t o f da i l y , f resh con ten t , each can be more proact i ve in bu i ld ing and s t imula t ing communi ty engagement a t a deeper leve l to enhance and suppor t Brand loya l ty and advocacy . Pos ts shou ld move we l l beyond “ l i kes” to bu i ld mean ing fu l and sp i r i ted d ia log to suppor t the Brand . None o f the s tud ied Brands do th is ex t remely we l l .

A l l Brands are per forming a t leas t a base leve l w i th Twi t te r . Sc ion i s espec ia l ly as tu te a t re in forc ing Brand en thus ias ts by ac t i ve ly and f requent ly d i rec t ing and respond ing to tweets by i t s fo l lowers .

YouTube is probab ly the most d i f f i cu l t o f the soc ia l channe ls to engage w i th Brand fo l lowers . A l though mechan isms are in p lace for v iewers to Comment , L ike , Share and P lay l i s t a v ideo , a la rge ma jor i t y o f v iewers are more apt to do ne i ther . Therefore , i t becomes cr i t i ca l (espec ia l l y w i th YouTube) to make i t easy for v iewers and subscr ibers to nav igate to o ther soc ia l and on l ine / o f f l i ne asse ts , and /o r CTAs (ca l l to ac t ions) . Hyunda i and Sc ion , v ia the i r cus tom Branded channe ls , do a t tempt to overcome th is bar r ie r . Sc ion add i t iona l ly has begun to exper iment w i th inser t ing CTAs in to v ideos for grea ter promot ion o f these o ther on l ine des t inat ions.

In the p re face , i t was po in ted out tha t the successfu l p rac t i ce o f Brand ing in soc ia l med ia i s de l i vered through purpose fu l and mean ing fu l con ten t . I t i s on ly then a Brand may be ab le to engage in mean ing fu l d ia log w i th i t s consumers for grea te r Brand awareness , p re ference , loya l ty and eventua l advocacy . Some o f these Brands s imp ly do i t be t ter than o thers . Bu t a l l Brands prac t i c ing soc ia l med ia can do be t te r . Soc ia l med ia exce l lence comes f rom an abundance o f research, ana lys is , measurement and cont inued exper imenta t ion w i th pa t ience and w i th an unwaver ing commi tment . The three Brands s tud ied based on the l im i ted v iew ana lyzed can be expec ted to evo lve fur ther as Best Pract i ces a re con t inua l l y iden t i f i ed , imp lemented and measured.

Brand / Asset Facebook Twitter YouTube

Hyundai 46 62 57

Mitsubishi 37 42 29

Scion 53 65 62


Appendices


Baseline Brand Keywords

Roots: [Hyundai], [Scion], [Mitsubishi], [Mazda]

Keywords

Topical (all): [Hyundai] [&] car, auto, automobile

[Hyundai] [&] fuel efficiency, MPG, electric (car, auto, automobile), hybrid (car, auto, automobile), gas mileage, cost of ownership, fuel economy

[Hyundai] [&] connectivity, technology, touch screen(s), touchscreen(s), infotainment system(s), iPod, smartphone, smart phone, tablet PC, USB, online applications, applications, voice control, touch control, steering wheel control, audio streaming, video streaming, social connection(s)

[Hyundai] [&] safety, collision avoidance, blind spot detection, sleep alert(s)

[Hyundai] [&] Generation Y, GenerationY, Gen Y, GenY


Strategic Intent Represents whether a social property has an identified purpose. Does not represent the degree or

sophistication of strategic alignment.

Execution / Content Focus

Represents whether a social property has some level of advance thought prior to execution including content developed and posted.

Consistent Frequency Represents whether a social property is active in the use of the social property with consistent,

frequent posts.

Engaged Fans / Followers

Represents whether a social property is succeeding in stimulating fan / follower engagement at any level.

Rescinded Engagement Represents whether the social property and its administrator is actively engaging with its fans /

followers via responses and conversations.

Content Appeal Represents whether a social property has adequate appeal to stimulate fan / follower engagement

at any level.

Social Integration Represents whether a social property and its execution efforts are integrated with any other social

property.

Assigned Administrator Represents whether a social property has an assigned administrator to manage the efforts on an

ongoing, consistent basis.

automotive snapshot

Automotive

social index

brand manufacturers

chosen manufacturers

social channels facebook

generation y demographic

automotive industry

community benchmarks

manufacturer brand