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28 January 2011

FTSE100 social media use is on the increase but companies remain wary

Frank Harkin Consultant | Read all Frank's posts

Frank Harkin – Biography

Frank worked as a content strategist and consultant at The Group from 2007 until 2011 when he decided on a new career path as a freelancer.

He was a well regarded and liked member of the team and we wish him well with his new venture.

Frank studied Communications at Dublin City University and has a Masters degree in Latin American Studies from the Institute for the Study of the Americas, University of London.

Since November 2009 we've been monitoring the use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs among FTSE100 companies at intervals of six months.

Our research shows a steady increase over the last year, though the majority of companies remain wary of social media.

The numbers

  • 45% of FTSE100 companies have an official Twitter account, up almost 50% in a year, while another 17% have holding accounts that they have yet to start using
  • 25% of FTSE100 companies have an official Facebook presence, up from 20% in November 2009
  • 39% of FTSE100 companies have an official YouTube channel, the same number as in June 2010 but up around a third – from 29% – over the year  as a whole
  • Only 12% of FTSE100 companies have a corporate blog, though that represents a 200% increase since this time last year

The details

During the summer Paul blogged about our first round of research from November 2009 to June 2010. Here we’ll talk about developments over the last six months of the year and what they might mean for social media use among the FTSE100.

Twitter remains most popular social media channel

As the chart below shows Twitter use continued to increase between June and December and has jumped almost 50% over the course of the year. 

Who came in and out?

The jump from 40 to 45 companies using Twitter can be accounted for by 10 new arrivals and five departures.

The 10 companies with new or newly active accounts are:

While the five that dropped out are:

  • BG Group – @BGGroup (became inactive*)
  • Cable & Wireless – @cwworldwide (no longer in FTSE100)
  • Intertek Group – @intertek_sc (not parent company account)
  • Man Group (we got the wrong MAN Group last time...)
  • Thomas Cook Group – @ThomasCookUK (no longer in FTSE100)

*Last used more than 12 months ago

See the full list of FTSE100 Twitter account in the appendix below

How companies use Twitter

A quick glance at the accounts above provides a good idea of how FTSE100 companies are using Twitter. For companies like Scottish and Southern Energy Twitter is simply a broadcasting channel for press releases and news items due perhaps to a lack of time, resources, interest or a mixture of all three.

Others use Twitter as a way to really talk to customers, responding to queries and retweeting links that may be of interest. Good examples of this include Carnival, United Utilities and AstraZeneca.

Some see Twitter as an opportunity to find new talent. Next has a new account aimed at jobseekers, which tweets new jobs and recruitment info, as does HSBC, though that it is far less regularly updated.

Other specific uses of Twitter include @greenertesco, which aims to spread Tesco’s CSR message, while companies like Aviva, BP and British Airways have multiple accounts to address different audiences.

What the future holds

Twitter is easy to set up, easy to use and, some well-documented failures apart, a fairly foolproof way for companies to connect with various people online. Which explains why of all the social media channels we’ve been monitoring, Twitter use is in the rudest health.

45 FTSE100 companies have an account while 17 others have holding accounts (at least some of which we expect to become active soon). Twitter use has also seen an increase of almost 50% over the course of 2010.

This kind of growth tallies with research in the US where Twitter is the fastest growing social media channel among the Fortune 500 and suggests that the upward trend we have seen over the last year is likely to continue.

Facebook an underused resource

Despite topping 500 million users and even having its own movie, Facebook remains an underused resource among the FTSE100. As the chart below shows, official Facebook presence remained static in the second half of the year, though there was a jump from 20% to 25% over the year as a whole.

How companies use Facebook

There is a considerable discrepancy in the use and quality of FTSE100 Facebook pages. Retailers like Sainsbury’s, Burberry and Next have seen the opportunities Facebook offers to provide customer service, run campaigns, manage competitions and more. Morrisons, on the other hand, has simply set up a page with little thought given to providing useful content or responding to comments and queries.

As with Twitter, some companies are using Facebook to connect with specific audiences. Reckitt Benckiser uses its Facebook page primarily as a recruitment tool while Centrica has a dedicated page for its graduate recruitment. Both Aviva and Carnival use Facebook as a means to push new campaigns while BP has used its channel as part of its response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

See the full list of FTSE100 Facebook pages in the appendix below

What the future holds

Only one in four FTSE100 companies has an official Facebook presence and there has been no new additions in the last six months. It is clear that despite its popularity, companies are wary of Facebook.

We see a number of reasons for this. One is cost; it can be expensive to create bespoke elements for Facebook pages. Another is effort; unlike Twitter, Facebook pages require a greater investment of time and energy to maintain. Allied to a general antipathy among large corporations (particularly here in the UK) toward any kind of change, these are powerful forces supporting the status quo. 

However, companies that eschew Facebook run the risk of losing control of what is being said about them. For example, social media monitoring suggests that that consumers on Tesco’s unofficial Facebook page are more negative than those on Sainsbury's official Facebook page.

It may be that as we track Facebook use over the coming months and years that it is the opportunity to control the conversation that will drive Facebook adoption. And, once there, we hope companies start to show a bit of imagination.

YouTube relatively popular but poorly used

39% of FTSE100 companies use YouTube to share videos, the same number as in June 2010 and up from 29% this time last year. However, YouTube may not be the best platform for these companies to present video content.

Who came in and out?

Although the hard numbers haven’t changed that doesn’t mean that there has been no activity. The status quo can be accounted for by five new entries and five departures.

The five companies with new channels are:

While the five that dropped out are:

*Last used more than 12 months ago

See the full list of FTSE100 YouTube pages in the appendix below

How companies use YouTube

YouTube is a relatively popular means for FTSE100 companies to share their video content. Yet, of all the social media channels we’ve been looking at, it is the least well used.

There are some exceptions – Aviva and Burberry have both put thought into their YouTube channels. The majority, however, seem content to add the odd video to the (frankly awful) channel template without much thought as to how their content will be consumed.

This may be to do without the channel interface that YouTube provides. There is little opportunity to personalise channels (without costly bespoke elements) or categorise videos by type or date.

As a result, companies create channels with a seemingly random array of videos with little or no contextual information. Some channels don’t even include links back to the corporate website.

What the future holds

We know that almost four in ten FTSE100 companies have an official YouTube channel. This is a figure that is likely to increase given that YouTube is the world’s most popular video-sharing platform.

Yet, looking at how it is being used, perhaps YouTube is not the best place for corporate videos. Video is expensive and time consuming to create. It needs to be curated and presented in context.

This is already something that some companies are doing well and it may be that companies would do better to look to the corporate website rather than YouTube to present the videos they produce.

FTSE100 remains a blogging backwater

Like a good heart (these days), corporate blogs are hard to find. Those companies that do blog seem almost apologetic about it, often hiding the blog away in rarely visited corners of their corporate websites. As a result the increases we’ve seen in blogging over the past six months have been blogs we’ve come across rather than newly launched blogs.

Who came in and out?

We came across four new blogs over the past six months:

While one blog has ceased to exist in that time:

  • BAE Systems graduate blog

See the full list of FTSE100 corporate blogs below

How companies use blogs

While only a small proportion of FTSE100 companies are blogging, those that are do so for a number of reasons. Centrica, for example, uses its blog to comment and reflect on news and events related to the company while WPP simply aggregates the blogs published by companies it owns in a blog portal.

Others use blogs to address particular audiences. SABMiller, Aviva and Shell have blogs they use to talk about CSR issues that affect each of them while the Reckitt Benckiser blog does a great job of giving prospective employees a good idea of what it is like to work at the company.

We’ve also come across other FTSE blogs that we haven’t included in our research because they fall short of the criteria we use to assess corporate blogs. These criteria include being written by a company employee(s), being about the parent company, being related to company operations (and not simply a blog about how great a particular product is) and enabling readers to leave comments.

Overall, we found that 23 FTSE100 companies have some kind of blog attached to them. Only 12, however, passed all our criteria. Some of the blogs we rejected include a blog by Inmarsat used to support its iSat phone, Marks and Spencer’s graduate blog, which does not allow comments, and Vodafone’s technology blog for app developers.

What the future holds

We’ve been tracking corporate blogging – in the FTSE100 and beyond – for a while now through our corporate blogging directory and we’ve already blogged about the dearth of UK corporate blogs, particularly in relation to US companies.

While FSTE 100 companies still lag behind counterparts in the US, blogging is on the increase and we expect this upward trajectory to continue. 

What's next?

Our research gives us a good idea of the state of social media use among the FTSE100, and where it’s going. Overall, we can see a social media landscape where Twitter use is relatively common while other channels are eyed warily by the majority, particularly corporate blogging.

We’ll continue to publish updates every six months and it will be interesting to see to how the trends we’re seeing develop. We'll also be blogging about best practice examples of the use of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging among the FTSE100.

Visit our Resources section for more research. You can also access our ever-growing corporate blogging directory and use our reporting directory to find links to Annual and CR reports of FTSE100, Dow Jones and EURO STOXX 50 companies for the last four years.

Appendix

Here you’ll find a full set of links to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and blogging activity among the FTSE100.

FTSE100 Twitter accounts

FTSE100 Facebook pages

FTSE100 YouTube channels

FTSE100 corporate blogs

																																						<blockquote><p>Visit our <a href="/index.asp?pageid=228" title="internal link; opens in same window">Resources sectiona> to access our ever-growing <a href="/index.asp?pageid=230" title="internal link; opens in same window">corporate blogging directorya>. You can also easily <a href="/index.asp?pageid=231" title="internal link; opens in same window">add a bloga> we might have missed to the directory.p>blockquote>

Visit our Resources section to access our ever-growing corporate blogging directory. You can also easily add a blog we might have missed to the directory.

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