New research puts Fortune 500 social media usage on display

Nov 18th

The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts released a new study of the Fortune 500’s adoption of blogging and Twitter. Highlights:

One hundred-eight (22%) of the Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing blog with a post in the past 12 months. This is up from 16% in 2008.

Blogging varied by industry type. As might be expected, companies in the computer industry like H-P, Dell and Oracle have the most blogs (11).

Rank seems to influence the adoption of blogging by the F500 — the larger the company, the more likely to blog. About 40% of the top 100 companies blog, compared to 19% in the next 100 slots on the list.

All 108 blogs were examined to determine the level of interactivity the blog allowed — 90% percent of the Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions

93 of the 108 F500 blogs are linked to a corporate Twitter account, a 300% increase over 2008.

The Fortune 500 companies are blogging at a lower rate (22%) than the fast-growing Inc. 500 companies (45%).

One hundred and seventy-three (35%) of the primary corporations listed on the 2009 Fortune 500 has a Twitter account with a post within the past 30 days

The largest company in the world, Exxon Mobil, does not have a Twitter account.

Four F500 companies (Boeing, Footlocker, FPL Group and Winn-Dixie Stores) had their Tweets protected and required a request to view their profile.

About 70% of the companies actively engage on Twitter as evidenced by the use of @replies and re-tweets.

19% of F500 do podcasting (up from 16%) and 31% are using video on their blog sites (up from 21%).

It’s encouraging to see the adoption of social media tools among large companies, especially Twitter. I’ve also been doing my own research on corporate blogs and some of these companies (GE, Oracle, SAP, Caterpillar) are doing some amazing things with their blogs.

What is your take on these trends?

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http://linkama.wordpress.com Kimmo Linkama

Although large companies may be slow in adopting new methods, marketing or otherwise, when they do, they do it in earnest. I think that’s evident on the basis of these numbers.

It also signifies a gradual shift in marketing thinking: outbound evolving to inbound.

It would be interesting to know how the F500 measure their social media ROI. I would imagine they have pretty good systems in place to link their social media activity with sales, at least in broad terms, but I also think they have “soft” metrics: being found online in the different phases of the sales cycle.

It is also probable that they’ve found an interactive online presence to also allow them a measure of controlling their message. Issue management, if you will.

All this is good. If you come across new, tangible figures on outcomes, please keep posting them. It would make a strong case for SM participation in my little circles here up north

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http://www.blogctech.com Emily

Thanks for putting this info all in one place. It will be interesting to see what kind of new innovative strategies the larger companies will take. They certainly can take more risk with their social media initiatives. Great post!

http://www.blogctech.com

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Mark

@Kimmo — As part of research for an upcoming class I’m teaching I am looking at company blog best practices. I will have a blog post coming out about this soon but I am really inspired by some of the great stuff going on out there. Stay tuned! Thanks for your comment!

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http://www.twitter.com/steve_dodd Steve Dodd

Finally. Some of us have been saying all along that big companies do “get it” and here is the proof. They’ve been “getting it” for years (as these examples did not just happen) but you can’t turn a big ship quickly. So it does take time.

@ Kimmo – your ROI question is a beaut! These guys don’t let anything happen without an ROI. For example how does SM at Caterpillar, a pure B2B big ticket equipment manufacturer justtify SM? Does it really help them sell million $ earth moving equipment?

Mark, thanks for bringing this forward!

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Mark

@Steve — Big companies are coming along but are still far behind the Inc 500 as I mentioned and even farther behind universities and non-profits.

It’s ironic that the people with the MOST resources are the slowest to adopt. My theory is that the hurdle is cultural. I can almost see a marketing guy going to the VP of a steel company about starting a Twitter account. Would love to be a fly on the wall!

Thanks for your contribution to the discussion.

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http://linkama.wordpress.com Kimmo Linkama

@Mark — True, the slow adoption by those with the most resources is somewhat ironic. However, they have so many issues to deal with that smaller, leaner organizations haven’t:

1. There is a bigger C-suite to lobby and a requirement for waterproof evidence of feasibility (for the initial go-ahead).

2. It requires investment (enter Accounting/Finance).

3. It requires setting up a new department or at least allocating a team to do the work, possibly even hiring new personnel (enter HR, Administration).

4. It requires putting relevant metrics in place (enter HR, Accounting, Marketing, PR, Sales, maybe also Operations).

5. It requires buy-in by all the depts/people who will be involved or affected, plus training.

6. Due to this large number of people, departments and corporate functions, messages travel and the idea takes root more slowly.

When it’s all done, however, then they’ll have really heavy artillery in position.

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Mark

@Kimmo — Oh my gosh that is a fantastic comment. Really a perfect summary of the problem and believe me, I have been there!

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http://linkama.wordpress.com Kimmo Linkama

Ah, I forgot an important twist to the whole setup I mentioned. IT needs to be involved in almost all of the steps above, which inreases its workload quite a bit. Maybe they even need new people. This then radiates back to HR, Accounting, Payroll…

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http://www.twitter.com/steve_dodd Steve Dodd

@ Kimmo – exactly, these are huge infrastructures that don’t turn quickly. But, once they do, look out because anything in it’s path will be swamped. My point has always been that there was significant evidence of big companies “getting it” but it was going to take them time to implement. I believe we are now seeing the results of that process.

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http://workingathomeadvice.com/blogging-for-newbies/ Carolee a.ka. Blogging Biz Mom

Like @Kimmo Linkama, said- there is a process to a corporation taking on a project such as blogging, tweeting, etc…

But I’m still surprised that more haven’t jumped on the bandwagon…

I can’t wait to read your post about a company’s “best blog practices”..

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http://www.kellyfletcherpr.com/her-voice/ Kate (FletcherPR)

I’m so glad I found this awesome community! I was fortunate to hear Mark speak last night at a social media event in my area and I couldn’t wait to hop on his blog and join in the conversation! He truly cares about building a community and the folks who are part of it. This is great!

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HowieSPM

Great data.Tthere needs to be a further breakdown by business type. Consumer facing businesses would use a blog and Twitter differently than B2B would. It must be a hard decision for a big company to move forward with such initiatives, especially how they use the tools and who is the person chosen.

Why would an Oil Company Tweet or Blog except to spread propoganda? But just that thought means they should be! What a more perfect and inexpensive way to rally the anti-global warming anti-pollution viewpoint. I mean cars are clean energy. All oil companies protect the environment and make sure they treat all populations they operate in as partners right? Dear Exxon-Mobil I have a great idea for you….

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