• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, April 16, 2013

Thanks to continued innovation, Facebook remained the top global brand for the third quarter in a row.
 
During the first quarter of 2013, the social giant generated $730 million in “impact media value." In second place, Google generated $545 million in media value, followed by Amazon.com with $519 million in media value during the quarter, reports social analytics firm General Sentiment.
 
“Our Global Brands report looked very different a year ago,” said Pete Moran, CEO of General Sentiment. “Then, Apple was the top brand … Facebook wasn’t even on the list.”
 
Driving Facebook's brand stock, the company unveiled a new search tool, dubbed Graph Search, at the beginning of the year. In early March, it debuted a home page redesign with bigger photos and links, as well as topic-specific News Feeds. At the end of the quarter, the social network had consumers and industry insiders in a frenzy over Home -- a new mobile interface for Android devices.
 
Also of note, the automotive industry gained the most traction during the first quarter with Volkswagen’s 17-spot increase (to fifth place with $361 million in media value), and Honda’s ascent from eleventh to ninth (with $178 million in media value).
 
However, technology brands continued to dominate the list with Microsoft, Adobe and Intel claiming sixth, seventh and eighth place, respectively.
 
With $177 million in media value, Disney rounded out the list at number 10 -- though it fell two spots from last quarter.
 
General Sentiment measures the purchase equivalent value of a brand’s exposure as determined by the sentiment, frequency and exposure of news mentions and social dialogue.
 
The company also notes "perception media value," which measures a brand with a focus on the quality of the exposure created. The big winners of the quarter included Abbott Laboratories, AES Corporation, Aflac, Amgen, Avery Dennison, AmerisourceBergen, Apollo Group, BNY Mellon, ACE Group and Allergan.
 
Perception media value losers this past quarter included Affiliated Computer Services, Analog Devices, Aimco, Air Products and Chemicals Inc., Aetna, Akamai, Abercrombie, AIG, Archer Daniels Midland and Bed Bath & Beyond.
 
According to General Sentiment, perception media value isolates the effects of sentiment on brand value by assigning positive value to positive mentions and negative value to negative mentions. Neutral mentions are not given value.