Biggest Brands On the Web

Online media and social networking sites and tools are rapidly turning buzz-building into a science. Creating brand awareness is hardly unique to the digital age, of course. In the Mad Men era, cigarette companies, booze suppliers and other product-driven businesses sent free samples to members of the press in exchange for ink. That stuff still goes on, but the game is changing. A new study, the General Sentiment Media Value Report, uses a system of quantifiable metrics to rank which companies are the best at creating this kind of exposure. It also measures the amount of negative exposure that top brands are generating as part of its calculations. The results clearly demonstrate that digital media-savvy companies are out in front when it comes to online headlines and chatroom conversations. Although, in the case of one oil-production giant, that kind of conversation isn't exactly doing the company any favors in the public eye. To come up with its rankings, General Sentiment analyzed online content and documentation for volume and positive/negative qualities, and developed a "purchase value" of the brand's exposure. Here are the companies dominating its rankings, and a sense of how great brand exposure is achieved.