The UK’s globally competitive smaller cities
The UK’s globally competitive smaller cities
ING’s new ranking reveals the UK’s most talked about cities. London dominates but, surprisingly, Liverpool punches well above its weight, coming second overall and topping the table when weighted for population.
ING Global Cities Digital Visibility Series 2019
Liverpool has topped bigger city rivals Manchester and Birmingham in ING’s latest report that ranks UK cities for social media and online news mentions.
Although London unsurprisingly performs the strongest for overall digital mentions, when population is taken into account Liverpool is the champion, demonstrating the strength of the city’s online presence.
Following a study of Europe's Most Talked About Cities and The USA’s Most Talked About Cities, ING’s new digital visibility ranking identifies how the UK’s Top 20 cities feature on social media and online news.
The UK’s cities are globally competitive, producing on average almost seven times more digital visibility than the world’s top 250 cities. While London is the UK’s only superbrand – with digital visibility comparable to Tokyo, New York City and Paris – many of the country’s smaller cities punch well above their weight for digital visibility.
“UK cities are investing heavily into building brands that reflect their attractiveness as cultural, business and education centres. Measuring their digital visibility provides a clearer insight into how these cities and towns perform as brands compared to their peers.”
How people talk about cities impacts on investment, talent acquisition and the places people visit. Increasing the quality of these conversations helps cities activate their unique stories.
Measuring and analysing digital visibility provides a clearer insight into how cities can elevate their profiles. At the cutting edge of communications, PR, digital media and wider urban cultural dialogues, ING has an extensive track record of helping cities thrive in a connected world.
The UK’s Most Talked About Cities
London is responsible for over 50 per cent of all mentions for the Top 20 cities, followed by Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. These numbers may already reflect how cities in the UK are repositioning themselves and their surrounding urban areas more strategically.
However, ranking by mentions per capita places London in fifth place behind Liverpool, Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh. Removing all football mentions (limited to 25 per cent of total mentions across all cities) related to Liverpool would position the city in third place between Cambridge and Edinburgh.
London has the most mentions across all the platforms measured. Liverpool has the second most mentions on Twitter, Facebook and forums, while Manchester, benefiting from media concentration, is second for news, blogs and Tumblr.
Oxford and Cambridge, as global centres for academic debate, produce significant amounts of content. These university towns (as with Sheffield) concentrate conversations around talent. Expanding this coverage into wider conversations could present significant opportunity for enhancing their digital visibility.
Within the overall ranking, cities like Liverpool, Sheffield and Oxford are punching well above their weight.
Places like Coventry, Nottingham, Belfast and Aberdeen, however, are not realising their comparatively stronger positions and have the most potential to grow their digital profiles.
The full ranking of The UK’s Most Talked About Cities is: London; Liverpool; Manchester; Birmingham; Glasgow; Edinburgh; Bristol; Oxford; Leeds; Reading; Belfast; Cardiff; Newcastle; Cambridge; Brighton; Nottingham; Aberdeen; Kingston-Upon-Hull; Southampton; Coventry.
The ranking for total mentions per capita is: Liverpool; Oxford; Cambridge; Edinburgh; London; Cardiff; Aberdeen; Brighton; Belfast; Glasgow; Manchester; Bristol; Leeds; Sheffield; Newcastle; Nottingham; Birmingham; Southampton; Coventry; Reading.
If you would like to learn more about how ING works with cities email: cities@ing-media.com