Amazon.com Inc., Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. continue to be the most-talked about retailers in the online social realm, according to the monthly Zeta Buzz Top 25 Retail Standings Index, but Macy’s Inc. and Best Buy Co. shot up into the top five in October.
The index, maintained by online marketing firm and social media monitoring service provider Zeta Interactive exclusively for Internet Retailer, shows consumers wrote 4,172 posts about Macy’s, 90% of which were positive, giving the retailer a Zeta Buzz Rating of 375.48, sending it up from No. 11 in September to No. 4 in October. And consumers posted 4,315 missives about Best Buy, 81% of which were positive, giving the merchant a rating of 349.52, shooting Best Buy up from No. 13 in September to No. 5 in October.
Zeta Interactive tracks mentions of a retailer’s name across more than 100 million blogs and online communities and analyzes the tone of each reference. The online marketing firm creates the Zeta Buzz Ratings for retailers by multiplying volume of mentions times the percentage of positive tone and dividing by 10. Zeta says a minimum good score for larger retail brands during any given month would be 60 or above.
Retailers in the top 25 run the gamut from Border’s to Nike to CVS. Understanding the tone consumers are using about these retailers is key, especially going into this holiday season.
“Bloomingdales knocked off Amazon’s two-month run as the most positive tone of all retailers on the list, registering at 97% positive, which might be a sign of bigger-name retailers taking back the reigns from discount stores,” says Al DiGuido, CEO of Zeta Interactive. “In terms of popular items for the holiday season, it looks like books and electronics will be the hot commodities as they are both up in positive tone this month, potentially signaling a big run on the new lines of e-readers that have been released.”
Following is the Zeta Buzz Top 25 Retail Standings Index for October, with retailer, Zeta Buzz Rating, number of posts and percent of posts that were positive:
1. Amazon.com, 464.28, 5,102, 91%
2. Wal-Mart, 424.89, 4,774, 89%
3. Target, 412.98, 4,693, 88%
4. Macy’s, 375.48, 4,172, 90%
5. Best Buy, 349.52, 4,315, 81%
6. Lowe’s, 285.98, 3,620, 79%
7. Kmart, 280.28, 3,418, 82%
8. Old Navy, 262.73, 3,055, 86%
9. Sears, 218.37, 2,631, 83%
10. Nike, 214.67, 3,204, 67%
11. Borders, 213.66, 2,428, 88%
12. Home Depot, 168.72, 2,109, 80%
13. Ikea, 155.92, 1,999, 78%
14. Barnes & Noble, 150.23, 1,810, 83%
15. Toys “R” Us, 139.31, 1,498, 93%
16. Nordstrom’s, 110.59, 1,301, 85%
17. CVS, 101.55, 1,154, 88%
18. GameStop, 103.68, 1,103, 94%
19. Radio Shack, 91.78, 1,055, 87%
20. Adidas, 86.87, 1,022, 85%
21. Kohl’s, 86.72, 1,084, 80%
22. Gap, 72.67, 1,101, 66%
23. H&M, 72.52, 980, 74%
24. Bloomingdale’s, 67.32, 694, 97%
25. Aeropostale, 55.40, 803, 69%
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