Top 100 Fortune Companies: How Are They Using Social Media?
A study recently carried out by Burson-Marsteller Communications Group shows that 79% of Fortune 100 companies are embracing social media. The study also gives evidence regarding detailed use of social media by those companies: the channels they are focusing on and their dedication to social media. As most of us know, Top 100 Fortune Companies puts together the most respected and renowned names, which also have access to the best resources due to the large budget they have in hands to manage. For traditional marketing, this has always given them a boost. However, can their resources represent an advantage when it comes to their online marketing strategy and their involvement in creating a strong online brand? Some say social media marketing is about using the right strategy and getting it implemented in the right way, and the budget allocated is less important. The study analyses their use of four of the largest social networking channels: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Business Blogs.
The study reveals the percentage chart of Fortune global 100 companies’ use of social media. They have identified four social media marketing channels as being most used. They are the following: Twitter (65%), Facebook (54%), YouTube (50%) and Blogs (33%).
First, the study analyses the percentage of companies using at least one of the four social networking channels. According to results there is a difference in their use as referring to their geographical coverage. European companies are leading, 88% of them using at least one, while the US has 86% and Asia only 50%. That is a surprise, since most people assume the US should lead when it comes to social media use.
However, when it analysed companies using all four social networking sites, the study concluded that the US was the one to lead. 28% of the US companies are using all four, while only 15% of the European companies are using all four. 25% of the Asian companies are also using all four channels.
The Top 100 companies’ one week activity on Twitter was also investigated. It was concluded that 82% of them are tweeting company news, 38% are responding to people’s tweets and only 32% are re-tweeting. One may say they are doing a better job at promoting themselves than actually listening and responding to their audience. Therefore, their customer service orientation looks to be a bit lower than most would expect. Most of them are however missing two very important steps of social media: listen and respond.
It is worth noticing that a large number of their followers are re-tweeting their news. The research proves that 32% of the tweets coming from Fortune Global 100 companies are re-tweeted.
Facebook was the second social networking site analysed. Percentages show companies are more involved on Facebook. After analysing their one week activity and interactions from the Facebook Fan Pages, the study proves that 59% of the companies have posts of their company and 43% have posts from fans. In addition to this, 51% also have likes from fans and 41% have posts with comments from fans. The average number of fans per page is about 40,884 fans per account.
The nest social media channel the study focused on was YouTube. Their one month interaction on YouTube was analysed. The research concludes that 68% of the companies uploaded new videos and 76% of channels also got feedback from viewers.
When it comes to blogging, the companies’ activity for one month was investigated. It reveals a rather low involvement of companies. Only 36% of corporate blogs had posts during that month and 54% of them had blog comments.
Furthermore, the study gives an overview of the companies’ average number of accounts per company for each four social networks analysed. They have an average number of 4.2 Twitter accounts, 2.1 Facebook accounts, 1.8 YouTube channels and 4.2 blogs running.
To summarize the results of this study we can conclude that fortune 100 companies are quite actively using Social Media channels to get attention from their audience. More than 85% of Fortune 100 American and European companies are using at least one social media channel and all over the globe more than 80% tweet company news regularly. Their Facebook presence has been successful, with an average Fan base of more than 40K per account. Also, they are not neglecting the power of videos, nearly 70% of them upload company videos time to time and their followers do comment on the videos. Nevertheless they are not using blogging that effectively. With the increase in people using social media networks for expressing more and more it is important for all the businesses to start listening and engaging their loyal customers online.
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