Some interesting stats from CorpComms magazine article about the use of social media by the top 100 companies listed in the UK. The Group conducted the original research:

  • Two thirds of FTSE 100 companies have an official Twitter account, but only 40 per cent use this channel actively (the others just  registered an account, branded their Twitter page and linked it back to the corporate website)
  • At least 42 FTSE 100 companies have had their company names hijacked on YouTube, yet only 43 have their own YouTube channel
  • One in five FTSE 100 companies have an external blog
  • 90 FTSE 100 companies that have a presence on Facebook, partly as a direct result of Facebook pulling in Wikipedia descriptions of most of the FTSE 100. In practice only one quarter of FTSE 100 companies have a coordinated and coherent Facebook strategy

Given that many of the largest companies in the UK are marketing to consumers, the stats surprise me. Although I believe that social media will always be more important in a consumer environment, clearly many companies don’t believe it’s worth the (pretty minimal) effort. Perhaps the biggest issue for consumer companies is the hijacking of brands – for example @BPGlobalPR – and whilst this will drive more activity in the consumer space, we’ve yet to see much of a problem with hijacking for B2B companies.

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Author

  • Mike Maynard

    In 2001 Mike acquired Napier with Suzy Kenyon. Since that time he has directed major PR and marketing programmes for a wide range of technology clients. He is actively involved in developing the PR and marketing industries, and is Chair of the PRCA B2B Group, and lectures in PR at Southampton Solent University. Mike offers a unique blend of technical and marketing expertise, and was awarded a Masters Degree in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Surrey and an MBA from Kingston University.

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