How Are Fortune 100 Companies Embracing 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%).

The study firstly investigated the percentage of companies using at least one of the four social networking channels. Results prove there is a difference in their use as referring to their geographical coverage. Therefore, European companies are leading, 88% of them using at least one, while the US has 86% and Asia only 50%. These results can be considered a bit surprising, 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 Twitter activity for one week of the top 100 companies is also investigated. The results shows 82% of them are tweeting company news, 38% are responding to people’s tweets and only 32% are re-tweeting. They seem to be 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. Some of them are 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.

Their presence on Facebook seems to be better. After analysing the Facebook Fan Pages activity for one week, the study shows that 59% of the companies have posts of their company and 43% have posts from fans. Furthermore, 51% also have likes from fans and 41% have posts with comments from fans. The average number of fans per page is high as well, about 40,884 fans per account.

Since the interaction created on YouTube is covered on larger time span, the companies’ activity for one month has been analysed. Results show that 68% of the companies uploaded new videos and 76% of channels also got feedback from viewers.

Last but not least, the study analysed the Top 100 companies’ blogging activity. Their activity for one month was investigated. This one revealed a rather low involvement of companies. 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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