• by Tanya Gazdik , April 25, 2018

Mercedes-Benz was the top automotive brand on social media in 2017, receiving more than 340 million cross-platform actions, according to a report.

BMW placed second with just more than 237 million total actions, while Lamborghini came in third with more than 47 million total actions, per the “State of Social” report from social media data and analytics firm Shareablee.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW dominated the top 10 automotive brands, making up 68% of the total actions.

The report is useful for brand leaders to identify and analyze trends, so they can get a sense of where their strategy is and is not working, as well as where they should put more focus. It’s important to know where eyeballs are going, says Tania Yuki, founder and CEO of Shareablee.

“Brands can also see how they fare in the competitive marketplace and what their share of voice is,” Yuki tells Marketing Daily. “For example, we found that the automotive industry made up 2% of the share of voice across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so there is opportunity for the industry to grow their presence. However, the industry saw a 44% increase in actions and 67% increase in actions per content, despite a 13% drop in content posted."

Cross-platform actions refers to likes, comments, retweets, etc., across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

“Overall, videos and photos tend to bring in the most engagement for users, which is what we saw with the top automotive brands in 2017,” Yuki says. “Visually engaging content always works, as well as links.”

Rounding out the top 10 automotive brands were Jaguar with 34.3 million actions, Porsche with 33.6 million actions, Nissan with 33.3 million actions, Dodge with 33.1 million actions, Audi with 30.5 million actions, Aston Martin 30.1 million actions and Harley-Davidson 28.9 million actions. 

When brands post about socially conscious activities they are involved in, it resonates with their core audience and spurs engagement, Yuki says. Other examples are Audi vouching for equal pay and Tesla promoting solar panels.

“A lot of these brands are posting with a purpose,” Yuki says. “Lamborghini’s post on donating a Huracan RWD to Pope Francis for auction received the most engagement on Instagram for automotive brands.”

Of course, it’s the cars themselves that attract attention through videos and photos of new car model unveilings, concept cars, races and events, she says.