Nissan Social Media Growth & Engagement Outpaces Industry Competition

FRANKLIN, Tenn., Jan. 18, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Celebrating success on the brand's social media channels, Nissan North America recognized how important tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have become to build brand loyalty, engage directly with consumers and generate website click-throughs. Nissan credits the recent achievements for being responsive to the communities and offering what they've wanted: car enthusiasm and exclusive access inside the brand.

(Logo:  http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20080506/NISSANWORDMARKLOGO)

Top Brand on Twitter

As reported in Mashable(1) last week, Nissan ranked #8 on list of Top 15 Brands on Twitter for 2011 as indexed by HootSuite(2). The recognition aligns the company, the only in the automotive industry on the list, with top social media players including Twitter itself, Apple and Nike. Nissan currently converses with more than 75,000 Twitter followers combined, across accounts for the brand @NissanNews and vehicle models @NissanVersa, @NissanJuke, @NissanQuest and @NissanLEAF.

"Nissan is proud to be earning recognition among such recognized leaders in the space," said Jon Brancheau, vice president, Marketing, Nissan North America, Inc. "We look forward to using this momentum to lead our new product launch efforts in the months to come."

Facebook Community Exceeds 500,000

Nissan proudly crossed the threshold into a half million likes on the brand's Facebook page at Facebook.com/Nissan. The growth, predominantly organic, took a jump with the all-new Pathfinder Concept revealed on the Facebook page in series of videos during the North American International Auto Show.

Among closest industry competitors, Nissan leads in Facebook page growth over past three months by more than 10 percent(3). More importantly for the brand, Nissan also leads in the interactions per fan, clearly fostering an engaged community.

"It is not just about the most number of fans for us," said Erich Marx, Director of Social Media and Interactive Media. "While we hope to continue our growth, we are more interested in the engagement; the interactions the fans have with the content we share. We want to use social media in one of the best ways possible: a two-way communication with potential and current customers."

Among those customers, Nissan recognized the importance of this social media channel within the Hispanic community and launched a Spanish-language Facebook page to connect with the Latino community at Facebook.com/NissanEspanol. Nissan also manages active Facebook communities for individual models including: LEAF, Altima, cube, JUKE, Quest, Versa and Nissan Performance (including Z and GT-R). 

YouTube Surpasses 10 Million Views

The YouTube.com/NissanUSA channel also celebrated a numeric milestone with ten million views. Although newer on the channel compared to competitors, Nissan has earned more views in a shorter amount of time which the brand attributes to the content, media focus, search strategy and strategy of integrating the same video content on NissanUSA.com website and Facebook pages.

Launched Google+ Presence

While Facebook, Twitter and YouTube continue to drive most-active users in the social sphere, Nissan also launched a Google+ channel to participate on the new channel. Nissan is testing what different types of content the audience wants and expects on Google+, such as introducing a moving GIF image with the iconic GT-R.

Nissan North America founded a dedicated social media presence in fall 2009, enjoying solid growth by mainly organic means due to devoted fans. Nissan North America is supported by Omnicom Agencies Zocalo Group, TBWA/Chiat Day and Team Ignition for social media support.

About Nissan North America

In North America, Nissan's operations include automotive styling, design, engineering, consumer and corporate financing, sales and marketing, distribution and manufacturing.  Nissan is dedicated to improving the environment under the Nissan Green Program 2010 and has been recognized as a 2010 and 2011 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year by the U.S Environmental Protection Agency.  More information about Nissan in North America and the complete line of Nissan and Infiniti vehicles can be found online at www.NissanUSA.com and www.Infiniti.com.

About Nissan

Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., Japan's second largest Japanese automotive company by volume, is headquartered in Yokohama, Japan and is an integral pillar of the Renault-Nissan Alliance. Operating with more than 150,000 employees globally, Nissan provided customers with more than 4 million vehicles in 2010.

With a strong commitment to developing exciting and innovative products for all, Nissan delivers a comprehensive range of fuel-efficient and low-emissions vehicles under the Nissan and Infiniti brands. 

A pioneer in zero emission mobility, Nissan made history with the introduction of the Nissan LEAF, the first affordable, mass-market, pure-electric vehicle and winner of numerous international accolades including the prestigious 2011 European Car of the Year award.

For more information on our products, services and commitment to Sustainable Mobility, visit our website at http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/.

(1)  Mashable, The Top Brands on Twitter in 2011 [Infographic]. January 10, 2012 from http://mashable.com/2012/01/10/top-brands-twitter/

(2) HootSuite. Twitter 2011 Trends from What the Trend: Part 2 featuring Brands and Hashtags. January 10, 2012 from http://blog.hootsuite.com/twitter-2011/

(3) According to Conversocial Facebook Page Profiler Interactions per thousand fans (IPM) metric

SOURCE Nissan North America