The Group report suggests FTSE 100 companies are finally getting social
Contrary to recent reports, a study released by The Group has suggested that FTSE 100 companies are finally signing up for Twitter and Facebook.
This flies in the face of research by Virgin Media Business which said that FTSE 100 companies are failing to use Twitter, with only 16 of the FTSE 100 businesses in the UK using the micro-blogging site to speak to customers.
The Group’s research shows that 56% of FTSE 100 companies now run a corporate Twitter account, up 40% since December. It rates the top 10 companies by number of tweets (see left); with ARM Holdings number one and Tesco at number ten with 1757 tweets.
However, Virgin’s research claimed that many businesses only established a Twitter feed to avoid ‘cyber squatters’ and that 72% had not used the account to respond to customer enquiries or comments.
Research by The Group also discusses the use of Facebook and YouTube by the FTSE 100 companies, showing that 38% now have a Facebook page and 41% have a YouTube channel.
In a follow-up blog by Paul Greenwood, business development manager for The Group, he said: “In its bid to avoid the free-for-all in creating a new Page when first launched, Facebook automatically registered the constituents of the FTSE100 with a Page by pulling in information from Wikipedia and adding a logo. We’ve called these Wiki rip-offs.
“Sadly, Wiki rip-offs still outnumber active corporate Facebook Pages. There are 42 companies with Wiki rip-offs Pages (with 27,627 fans between them!) while there are 38 companies with active corporate Facebook Pages. The problem is that Wiki rip-offs still exist and run concurrent when the real accounts are set up. When searching Facebook both Pages will appear causing confusion and diluting the brand.
“When we asked Facebook about the duplication of company Pages, its response was that it is in the process of figuring out how to migrate fans from the Wiki rip-offs to the authenticated Pages and it would let us know when this was happening. At the time of writing we haven’t heard back from Facebook.”
The Group identifies the top performing social media users in the FTSE 100 as ARM Holdings, Aviva, Carnival, Centrica, Pearson, Reckitt Benckiser, SABMiller, Shell and WPP.
Blogs seem to be the area of social media which the companies are least likely to get in to, with only 12% having a blog.
Mark Hill, principal at The Group, said: “FTSE 100 companies have been slow to realise that business audiences as well as consumers want to have a far fuller picture of the companies they are interested in and they want it delivered rapidly and flexibly.
“Our research has shown British corporate communications has lagged behind those in the USA in this area. The latest results from our ongoing Social Media Leaders Report, suggests the FTSE 100 might be catching up.
“UK corporate communications teams are clearly becoming more comfortable using social media to help them manage information and relationships in our 24-hour news culture and are realising it takes time to establish an effective presence on these channels.”