So I wrote a piece in PR News...

If you have a subscription you can read it here.

I compared the work of Honda and Toyota as they used social media to launch their most popular models in 2012 - the Honda Civic and the Toyota Camry.  Both companies have had challenges in recent years, and 2012 is an important year for both models.

In comparing the two I used data from Social EQ, a model developed by my company, APCO Worldwide. Social EQ's model uses opinion research to help determine what "Social Informants" - that's the name we give to those uber-users of social media who influence the online discussions the rest of us have all the time - consider to be an effective social media presence for a company or organization.  Since the Social EQ team already reviewed the 40 "Most Admired" companies as rated by Fortune Magazine, we already had a good snapshot of Honda and Toyota.

Both companies basically got middling reviews when compared to the other most admired companies.  They both have decent, easy-to-find online content, but Social Informants want more direct access to the people who work there when they have questions or feedback.  I notice that both companies are trying to do just that, but in different ways.  Honda is trying to strengthen its reputation with its customers by starting a grassroots-y YouTube-driven original music video contest.   Toyota is rolling out the model - quite literally - via webcast and trying more direct outreach to leading voices in different online communities, like my good pal Tim Hurst at Earth & Industry.

The Social Informants initially gave Honda a slight edge over Toyota when the Social EQ team did their research, but I have to say I like what Toyota did with the Camry a bit more than what Honda did.  Honda was creative and fun, but Toyota was more direct and did a good job identifying online community leaders.  Bottom line I think both companies deserve credit for trying new things but I think Toyota closed their social media gap with Honda a bit here.