Use of Blogs and Twitter Growing Among Fortune 500
Do America’s largest companies use blogs and Twitter?
You bet they do.
Late last year, the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth took a close look at social media use among the Fortune 500, Fortune Magazine’s list of the largest companies in the U.S.
The data revealed that:
122 percent of 2009 Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog with a post in the past 12 months –that’s up from 16 percent in a similar study from 2008. Three of the top five corporations –Walmart (#2), Chevron (#3) and General Electric (#5) –have public-facing blogs; the two remaining in the top five, Exxon/Mobil (#1) and Conoco Philips (#4) do not.
2A whopping 90 percent of the Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions. I find this interesting because typically, when I talk to clients, one of their top concerns regarding a blog is: How will we handle the comments? They worry that responding to comments will be overly time-consuming. Plus, they’re anxious about the possibility of negative feedback. (Stay tuned. I’ll address both of these concerns in a future post.)
3The percentage of Fortune 500 companies blogging pales in comparison to the percentage of Inc. 500 companies blogging. The Inc. 500 is a list of the fastest-growing, private companies in the U.S., and in 2009, the UMass Dartmouth researchers found that nearly half (45 percent) of them have a public-facing blog. What’s more, 91 percent of the Inc. 500 reported that they use at least one social media tool, and 44 percent of companies without a company blog said they plan to start one.
4More than one-third (35 percent) of the Fortune 500 have a Twitter account with a post within the past 30 days. Four of the top five corporations –Walmart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and General Electric –consistently post on their Twitter accounts. Exxon/Mobil does not have a Twitter account.
The complete report, “The Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” is available here.
Photo credit: Geek and Poke
looking forward to hearing how companies with brand equity handle blog comments.
I’m happy to start the conversation here in the comments section!
Different companies handle blog comments in different ways. One thing to keep in mind is that you can always moderate comments, which allows you to screen out profanity, spam, etc. Another thing to remember is that you cannot escape the occasional negative comment –but even a “negative” can turn into a “positive” on a blog. Companies that respond to (rather than ignore) criticism open up new avenues of communication with their customers. Think of it this way: If you’re a company with brand equity, people are already talking about you online –on Twitter, Facebook … perhaps even on your competitor’s blog. Wouldn’t you rather be connecting with these folks on your terms, on your own blog?
Great post Kathy. The idea of controling the media is long gone so I think it’s only natural for companies to have a presence in this space. Not having a blog or not being on twitter wont make the negative comments go away. However, as you mentioned, you can turn negatives into positives if you are looking out and engaging in them.
Thanks for sharing.
Keep doing good things!
Justin
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