Majority of FTSE 100 'failing' at social media
The majority of FTSE 100 companies have failed to fully embrace social media activities and risk being overtaken digitally by smaller and more agile firms, according to a new report.
The report, by corporate communication company Radley Yelder found that sixty out of the FTSE 100 still show no sign of social media on their corporate website, despite many of them having at least one account with the major four social sites - Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.
Only 29 companies have a main corporate page on Facebook, while 54 of the top ranked companies have a corporate Twitter feed and 31 have set up a professional YouTube channel.
However, according to the research, only 16 of the 29 FTSE 100 companies with a presence on Facebook update their profiles with fresh content on a weekly basis – with just 19 attempting to engage with the audience and be responsive.
Similarly, only 23 of the 54 companies which have Twitter profiles are regularly posting tweets and 22 of them post corporate tweets – with no personality or inspired thought going into the output according to the report.
The report picked out major companies such as Cairn Energy, Associated British Foods and International Power as having low levels of social media engagement and digital communication.
Reckitt Benckiser, Centrica, ARM Holdings, and Vodafone Group were among the companies found to be making the best use of social media engagement.
Richard Coope, head of digital at Radley Yeldar, said: “The survey raises the question as to whether companies are really committed to open and trusted dialogue."