Over 87% of Fortune Global 100 companies use at least one of the major social networks, with the most significant growth in corporate usage happening on YouTube.
This is according to the third annual Burson-Marsteller Global Social Media Check-up, which examined the Fortune Global 100 companies' use of social networking platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google Plus and Pinterest.
“The study found there has been a 39% jump in the percentage of companies with a branded YouTube channel. Seventy-nine percent of companies in the study are now using a branded YouTube channel compared to 57%, in 2011. These channels each average more than two million views and 1 669 subscribers,” says Burson-Marsteller.
Burson-Marsteller Worldwide CEO Mark Penn says the 2012 study has shown a trend in the increase of social media content creation by corporates. “Since 2010, it has been interesting to see the companies' use evolve from broadcasting to engagement to content creation. Companies are now integrating more original multimedia content to share with followers on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.”
Talking back
The study also found the Fortune Global 100 companies were mentioned on social platforms a total of 10 400 132 times in a single month, with the majority of mentions occurring on Twitter. “Twitter is the most popular platform for both companies and for online discussions about these companies. Indeed, 82% of Fortune Global 100 companies have at least one Twitter account, while each company was mentioned an average of 55 970 times on Twitter.”
Since 2011, it is also noted that the average number of followers per corporate Twitter account has nearly tripled, from 5 076 to 14 709. Company Facebook pages have also seen a 275% increase since 2010 in the average number of “likes”. The average number of Facebook likes for a corporate Facebook page among the Fortune Global 100 is now 152 646.
“People want to interact and connect with these major companies, and these platforms are the bridge directly to the heart of these organisations,” says Burson-Marsteller chief global digital strategist, Dallas Lawrence.
The study found that companies are increasingly willing to engage with their followers, with 79% of corporate accounts engaging on Twitter with retweets and mentions, and 70% of corporate Facebook pages responding to comments on their timelines. A total of 74% of the companies have Facebook pages, 93% of which are updated weekly.
A key insight from the study was that the top companies are increasingly seeing value in creating multiple accounts on the same platform in order to better target their audience based on geography, topic or service.
The study also found that corporates are adapting rapidly to new platforms, with close to half of the Fortune Global 100 already on Google Plus and already a quarter of the companies having a presence on Pinterest.
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A recent ITWeb survey also discovered that most of the organisations (69.75%) in SA are using social media as a business tool.
In that survey, Facebook, selected by 86%, was the most popular platform used for business. This was followed by Twitter (76.32%); LinkedIn (60.53%); blogs, YouTube and Google (50% each); instant messaging (45%); MySpace (11.84%); Mxit and Instagram (9.21% each); and Zoopy (5.26%).
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