Utah Business Magazine - Are certain U.S. cities more "talkative" about brands than others? A new study, "America's Most Talkative Cities," by research company The Keller Fay Group shows that residents of Salt Lake City ranked fourth among U.S. cities when it comes to word-of-mouth consumer conversation.

Houston, Texas ranked first, where people have an average of 95 consumer conversations per person per week.

This is the first time word-of-mouth results are being released for the 50 largest cities. Just behind Houston, the next highest are Jacksonville and Miami Fla., with 94 and 93 average weekly conversations per resident, respectively. Salt Lake City was fourth with 92. The national average was 79 weekly consumer conversations, per person. 

What exactly do consumers talk about in these conversations? Nationally, media/entertainment and food/dining are the two most talked about categories, followed by sports, beverages and technology. At the individual city level, certain categories stand out from the national norms. For example, people in Houston are 37 percent more likely than the average American to talk about automotive brands. In Jacksonville, people are 56 percent more likely to talk about financial service brands.

The results come from TalkTrack, a continuous survey of consumer conversations. The data in this report are based on approximately 75,000 consumer interviews conducted during the past two years. 

The full list of the top ten most talkative cities follows.

Houston, Texas

Jacksonville, Florida

Miami, Florida

Salt Lake City, Utah

Atlanta, Georgia

New Orleans, Louisiana

Los Angeles, California

San Diego, California

Norfolk, Virginia

West Palm Beach, Florida