New York accounts for 28.5% of all online conversation of the top 40 US cities, according to The USA’s Most Talked about Cities, a recent report from property PR firm ING Media. 

The research shows that New York is more digitally visible in terms of ‘social media and digital news’ than Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, and Las Vegas combined. It was present on Instagram 17 times more regularly than the other top 40 US cities, on average. 

Excluding New York, Chicago leads on Twitter, Facebook and Forum, while Los Angeles leads on blogs, news and Tumblr.

San Francisco performed comparatively weakly on Twitter, despite the company being founded in the city, with 10% fewer mentions than the average recorded for the top 40 US cities.

Additionally, Cleveland, Memphis, Tampa, Las Vegas, and Columbus were identified by ING Media as punching above their weight, insofar as their online profiles greatly exceeded their ‘global ranking’ based from 24 different global city rankings. 

In this regard, Memphis outperformed the other top 40 US cities and was boosted by a high percentage of conversations about talent. Cleveland and Las Vegas performed strongly for online conversations about culture, while Tampa and Columbus had a high number concerning business.

Phoenix, Austin, Minneapolis, Orlando, Washington DC and Honolulu were identified as cities showing the most potential for raising their profile through social media and online engagement, with each having an average global city ranking that greatly exceeded their digital visibility.    

“Visibility matters to cities, influencing investment, where talent concentrates and whether we decide to visit or not. The challenge is to ensure the quality of conversations happening across all forms of media – including digital – helps each city to not just climb the rankings, but also activates its unique story,” said Leanne Tritton, managing director at ING Media. 

The report by ING Media builds on previous research into Europe’s Most Talked About Cities, which placed London first, followed closely by Paris. While the latest study found that New York accounts for over a quarter of all online conversations in the US, the Europe-focused investigation revealed that London and Paris are responsible for just 15%, individually.