Social Wavelength analyzed conversations on social media about popular smartphone brands and compared them, in order to understand how people perceive them and what factors drive these conversations.

2.
Introduction
India is one of the largest mobile phone markets in the world, having a user‐base
of 929 million as of August, 2012 and one of the fastest growing, too. The
country accounts for more than 10% of the world’s mobile population. More and
more people are opting for smartphones in this beehive of opportunities, as
these powerful machines are providing better features at lesser prices with each
passing month. The competition is immense at all levels, be it pricing, looks or
specifications. Brands are finding new ways to woo consumers and, therefore,
looking to create smartphones that are more powerful and technologically
advanced. So, mobile platforms that make these smartphones ‘smart’ have,
therefore, become the subjects of much deliberation.
A large number of people present their opinion and discussions about these
brands, (and these platforms) on social media. Perceptions are shared,
recommendations are made and decisions are taken after referring to these
opinions. All of this not only makes social media monitoring necessary, but also
an added advantage for brands who need to build their online reputation.
We analyzed conversations on social media about popular smartphone brands
and compared them, in order to understand how people perceive them and
what factors drive these conversations.

3.
Abstract
We used Radian6, a part of the Salesforce Marketing Cloud – a sophisticated,
easy‐to‐use, real time monitoring tool – to extract conversations about the
following mobile platforms having presence in India, through the use of
keywords:
Conversations about brands that use the above platforms between the October
28, 2012 and November 27, 2012 were analyzed and the buzz and sentiment of
these brands were measure and compared. The topics of discussions and drivers
of conversations were also identified to understand the kind of conversations
happened. The keywords used were simple platform‐related terms and handset
models (and their variations) present in India that use these smartphone
platforms. For this report, we focused more on the Android platform, and
reports on each specific mobile platform will be published in the future.

4.
Table of Contents
Platform wise Share of Voice 1
Aspect wise Analysis 2
Media Type Analysis 3
Brand Reputation and Advocacy 4
Influencers 5
Summary 6

5. 1
Comparison between popular android mobile
Share of Voice manufacturers based on the number of
conversations found
Top Models that drive conversations of top 3 handset manufacturers
Samsung HTC
Sony
Samsung leads by a long way when it comes to popularity of the brand and popularity of the handsets.
Except Sony, conversations for the top 3 brands are driven by their flagship phones.
IN MOST CASES, THE POPULARITY OF FLAGSHIP PHONES DETERMINES THE POPULARITY OF THE BRAND.
FOR SAMSUNG, IT IS THE S3 AND FOR HTC, IT IS THE ONE X.

6. 2
Top 3 aspects people discuss the most when
Aspect wise Analysis conversing about Android?
When people on social media discuss about Android phones, they talk a lot about their features, sometimes
copying entire specification sheets and sharing the same. Due to the advanced multimedia capabilities of
Android smartphones, not surprisingly, a large number of conversations about storage were discovered. And
the reason why smartphones are fast replacing cameras can be clearly seen in the chart above. How large the
display screen of a phone is, and also its resolution, greatly matters for people. While Wifi is an important
connectivity feature in smartphones these days, a lot of people speak about that battery life, which is often an
important factor in the purchase decisions. Pricing is another important factor, the discussions of which often
happen in conjunction with features. Design, surprisingly, is not as importantly discussed.
MULTIMEDIA FEATURES OF AN ANDROID SMARTPHONE, AND ALSO TO SOME EXTENT, ITS CONNECTIVITY
FEATURES AND BATTERY LIFE, ARE THE DRIVING FEATURE OF THE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT IT, AND THESE
FEATURES CAN BE STATED AS THE USP OF THE HANDSET MODELS AND THE BRAND, TOO.
Media Type Analysis Where does the chatter take place?
Twitter dwarfs all other media platforms in terms of volume, accounting for more
than 90% if ALL the conversations about Android phones. Mainstream Media, which
is primarily the first source of any news, trails by a long distance. Also, popular blogs
and forums like fonearena.com, gsmarena.com, androidcentral.com, and
forum.gsmhosting.com are referred by many for reviews on Android smartphones.
EACH CONVERSATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA NEEDS TO BE TRACKED AND ANALYZED
CONTINUOSLY, ESPECIALLY ON TWITTER, WHICH IS A STOREHOUSE OF PEOPLE’S
PERSONAL SENTIMENT ABOUT ALMOST EVERYTHING.

7. 3
Proprietary Social Wavelength metrics
Brand Reputation and Advocacy comparing brands using Android platform
Samsung not only accounts for
most of the conversations on
social media about Android
manufacturers, it also contributes
a quite high share of true
sentiment. Sony comes second by
volume, but languishes at the
bottom, when the Brand
Reputation Index is taken into
account. This is because it has a
higher share of negative
conversations from the total
discussions about it. HTC, at the
third spot by volume, still lies in
the bottom four, only because of
its higher share of negative
conversations.
This holds true even when the
volume and sentiment of the
monitored brands are plotted on
the Brand Advocacy Matrix and
are compared amongst each
other. Samsung, as seen
alongside, easily beats other
brands both in terms of volume
and sentiment. On the other
hand, major incumbents like Sony
and HTC lie in the Concern
Quadrant. In fact, other lesser‐
known brands have much better
sentiments.
WHILE VOLUME MAY BE A GOOD
INDICATOR OF A BRAND’S REACH
ON SOCIAL MEDIA, THE TONE OF
CONVERSATIONS AFFECTS THE
The Brand Reputation Index is a metric derived by Social ONLINE REPUTATION OF THE
Wavelength to measure the relationship between the sentiments BRAND TO A GREAT EXTENT.
of brands. The Brand Advocacy Matrix plots the BRI in relation to THEREFORE, REGULAR SOCIAL
the brands volume and presents a clear comparison between MEDIA MONITORING OF SUCH
brands. CONVERSATIONS IS NECESSARY.

8. 4
Influencers
Ok, so the #samsung S3 multitasks much better than the #iphone.
MUCH better. Yes
@GulPanag (456874 Followers, 56241 Updates)
@ilovethezodiak Same here, Z. Currently sticking w/
Android+Samsung combo.
@arkarthick (38028 Followers, 137043 Updates)
HTC One X Plus Review: Basically the Same Awesome Phone
http://dlvr.it/2PKYlj
@v_shakthi (63511 Followers, 211959 Updates)
Sony's Xperia T Is A Muscular Monster Of A Smartphone: Cinema goers
may recognise Sony's latest Android smartpho...http://onforb.es/100HoPz
@Srinjoy (54834 Followers, 269860 Updates)
LG Optimus L5. Any opinion?
@madversity (33881 Followers, 71679 Updates)

9. 5
Summary
• By volume of conversations, the Android platform leads other mobile
platform by a huge margin (6 out of every 10 people).
• The top three mobile brands – Samsung, HTC and Sony – collectively
contribute 93% of the conversations about the Android.
• The flagship handset models are the primary conversation drivers of
smartphone brands, occupying the largest share of voice in their
discussions.
• When talking about Android smartphones, people tend to speak about
their features the most, followed by their prices.
• Twitter, by far, contributes the largest share of conversations, accounting
for 90% of these. Since a large majority of updates on this media platform
deal with personal sentiment, it needs to be actively monitored.
• It is possible that a brand with a larger share of voice may have poor brand
reputation on social media i.e. they may have a higher negative feedback
than other brands with a much lower share of voice.
• Again, monitoring becomes a crucial process in identifying these negative
conversations. Also, USPs of brands can be easily identified looking at
patterns present in the positive conversations.
• Brands with lesser share of voice need to monitor the industry and
competitors with higher buzz, to understand the methods they follow for
communicating on social media.

10. 6
About Social Wavelength
Social Wavelength is India’s largest social media agency. Founded in 2009, we
are now a team of 150+, managing social media for 60+ brands and having
presence at Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Bengaluru.
We are also the authorized reseller for Radian6, world’s leading social media
monitoring tool, for India.
Social Wavelength has been recognized as a “Red Herring Asia 100” company for
its innovative business model. Earlier this year, we won the WAT award for being
“Social Media Agency of the Year.” It is also the authorized India reseller of
Radian6, the most sophisticated social media management tool.
For Business Enquiries:
Mihir Karkare
Vice President
mkarkare@socialwavelength.com
Mobile: 9870399493