Today Weber Shandwick (my employer) released a study highlighting the fact that most of the Fortune 100 companies don’t get how to use Twitter effectively. Though I don’t suspect that was a huge surprise to a lot of people – especially those in the social media space.
The report found that 73 percent of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts. However, about three-quarters (76 percent) of those accounts did not post tweets very often, and more than half (52 percent) were not actively engaged. (This was measured by engagement metrics such as numbers of links, hashtags, references and retweets.)
In addition, 50 percent of the Fortune 100 accounts had fewer than 500 followers, a small number in relation to the size and reach of a major corporation. Another 15 percent were inactive; 4 percent having been abandoned after being used for a specific event.
Other findings included:
- 41 accounts appeared to be not controlled by the organisation
- 76 percent of accounts had made less than 500 tweets
- 24 percent of the Twitter accounts were primarily used for brand awareness and only 11 percent for customer service
As my colleague Chris Perry, who co-leads our global digital efforts said on Ad Age today:
Most companies fail to realize Twitter’s full potential as a market engagement platform. While 73% of Fortune 100 companies registered a total of 540 Twitter accounts, effectiveness based on level of activity, interaction and engagement were off the mark.
The report makes five recommendations for companies looking to create true engagement and market interaction on Twitter:
1. Listen to conversations
2. Participate in conversations
3. Update frequently with valuable information
4. Reply to people who talk about issues that are important to your company
5. Retweet relevant conversations
I’d be interested to know your thoughts on the study and its conclusions. What has been your experience with big brands on Twitter? How different would the report look if we were analysing companies in Australia and Asia?
Embeddable version of the report here.
