The Global Social Media Check-up

The Global Social Media Check-upInsights from the Burson-Marsteller Evidence-Based Communications Group

With the advent of digital and social media, communications anarchy is the new norm. Social media has shifted control of the corporate message away from the organization and towards consumers and other stakeholders, and running away and hiding is no longer the safe

2Burson-Marsteller Evidence-Based Communications

Many organizations are monitoring blogs and Tweets, and others are pushing

out news and promotional messages through social media channels. But only

by engaging with others online can the organization strategically garner a fair

share of voice and remain master of its own reputation.

It is time for companies to embrace, not fear, emerging media. There is no

other way to remain competitive. The key is finding the right voice and the

right tools. Social media allows for a level of conversation in ways never before

possible — presenting enormous opportunities for research, brand building

and the creation of brand evangelists. The value of social media is that users

are highly engaged and want to be heard. So, by listening to them and ap-

proaching them from their own point of view, it is possible to have a positive

impact on beliefs and perceptions.

Yes, there is the possibility of negative brand impact — but that is even more

reason to participate in the conversation. By avoiding the place where the con-

versation is happening, the company is missing the opportunity to be heard

and understood.

Burson-Marsteller’s Fortune Global 100 Social Media Check-up study

demonstrates that most companies have dipped their toes in the social media

world — some with a big splash and others with a timid ripple — and that sim-

ple, responsible engagement in social media can reap big rewards in building

relationships with stakeholders online. We explored the use of social media

among Fortune Global 100 companies based on their involvement in Twitter,

Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging.

We found that each of these tools is being used extensively not only by

corporate headquarters but also by local market offices, various divisions of

the company and for one-time corporate events. To this extent, social media

is providing great benefits and opportunities by helping different niches of a

company reach their target audiences. But, it is also introducing challenges

by creating mixed messages and tones and by leaving abandoned Twitter

accounts and Facebook fan pages which may be detrimental to the brand.

Companies must monitor their own social media presence to ensure a

consistent brand message and to measure the impact of their social media

engagement.


Proliferation of Corporate Engagement in Social Media

Of the Fortune Global 100 companies, 65% have active Twitter accounts, 54%have Facebook fan pages, 50% have YouTube video channels and 33% havecorporate blogs* (see Graph 1).

Regionally, we see that relatively more Asian companies have active blogs(50% vs. 34% in the U.S. and 25% in Europe) but much less activity on Twitterand Facebook (Graph 2d). While we also explored some local Asian socialmedia websites (such as Mixi in Japan), there was virtually no activity throughthose channels either. Asian companies currently appear to be more comfort-able communicating with stakeholders via a corporate blog.

Twitter Accounts

FacebookFan

Pages

YouTubechannels

CorporateBlogs

65%

54%50%

33%

*Data was collected between November 2009 and January 2010 among the Fortune Global 100 companies:U.S. = 29 companies, Europe = 48 companies, Asia-Pacific = 20 companies, Latin America = 3 companies.Because of the low sample size for Latin America, data is only broken out for this region for overall activity rates. Active accounts (with at least one post from the company the past three months) were includedin the analysis.

Proportion of Fortune Global 100 Companies With...

Total U.S. Europe Asia LatAm

65%

72% 71%

40%

67%


54%

69%

52%

40%

33%


50%

59%

52%

35% 33%


33% 34%

25%

50%

33%

Fortune Global 100 Companies With YouTube Accounts

Proportion of Fortune Global 100 Companies With Blogs

Fortune Global 100 Companies With Twitter Accounts

Fortune Global 100 Companies With Facebook Fan Pages

Graph 1

Graph 2a Graph 2b

Graph 2c Graph 2d


View from Brazil

Forty-five percent of Brazilians engage in social networks, including 72% ofthose age 18 to 25. Twitter reached 8.7 million users in Brazil in October 2009and those users spend an average of 57 minutes browsing, much more thantime spent by users in the U.K. (38 minutes) and the U.S. (32 minutes). Brazilian companies’ use of Twitter was almost immediate; so far, promotions,offers and contests are the greatest attractions to get followers on Twitter.

More than 80% of Internet users have profiles on Orkut — the most successfulrelationship-building network in the country with 26 million users. Thus far,Brazilian companies have avoided engaging with customers on social sitessuch as Orkut and Facebook so as not to appear intrusive and for fear of losing control of the conversation. However, some companies are closely monitoringconversations on these social media sites and have used the data to develop strategies for creating or re-launching products.

View from China

The number of Chinese Internet users has more than tripled to about 387 mil-lion since 2005, and Chinese consumers are enthusiastic users of social media,particularly discussion boards (‘BBS’), social networks, video sharing and online games.

China has large private firms and branches of major foreign consumer productsfirms that are aggressive users of social media for marketing and communica-tion. By comparison, large state-owned firms — many of which are included in these analysis — have adopted social media very slowly, even though threeof the five companies are in relatively competitive consumer environments. China Mobile, which is busy promoting its new 3G services, is the most aggres-sive at using the Internet as a marketing tool. However, it tends to use its ownwebsite and is even constructing its own social network for customers.

Global Companies Using At Least Oneof the Four Platforms

Global Companies Usingall Four Platforms

Total U.S. Europe Asia

79%

86% 88%

50%


20%

28%

15%

25%

Graph 3a Graph 3b

A few years ago, the buzz was that corporations were starting to use blogs tocommunicate digitally with stakeholders. Now, one-third of the top global 100companies maintain a blog, but this is only half as many as use Twitter (65%).

Blogs provide organizations with an opportunity to have a more direct dialoguewith stakeholders online, and are still a very important part of the marketingand communications toolset. What social media adds is the ability to reachpeople where they already are — on Twitter and Facebook — actively social-izing, getting news and sharing their opinions. These social media sites provideeasy ways for companies to share quick updates and news bites without theeffort of drafting a thoughtful and meaningful blog post. However, when a com-pany has a message that exceeds Twitter’s 140-character limit, a blog is anideal venue for a more in-depth interactive discussion.

More than three-quarters (79%) of the top 100 companies in the rankings areusing at least one of the social media platforms we reviewed (Twitter, Face-book, YouTube or corporate blogs) to actively engage with stakeholders. But only 20% of these companies are utilizing all four platforms to engage withstakeholders (Graph 3).


Companies are Tweeting & Posting Extensively

For companies that are active on Twitter, they are extremely active. The vastmajority (82%) have tweeted in the past week, well over half (59%) haveposted on their Facebook fan pages in the past week, about two-thirds posteda video on YouTube (68%) in the past month and a little over one-third (36%)posted an entry on their corporate blog (Table 1).

Activity levels are relatively high for companies in all regions, particularly onTwitter. Rates of posting on Twitter are also virtually identical in all regions. Regarding Facebook, European companies are most diligent about frequentlyengaging on their Facebook fan pages, with 82% posting in the past week.The greatest disparity is in the frequency of blog posting. In the U.S., blog activity is relatively low (11%), whereas 83% of European companies haveposted on their blogs in the past month. Asian companies blog more frequently (an average of 14 blog posts per month), probably because they are using blogs more than other types of social media to communicatewith stakeholders.

Companies are Not Just Broadcasting Information —There is a Real Dialogue Going On

Companies are not just providing information via social media – a true dialogueis taking place. Corporate Twitter accounts have thousands of followers andmany corporate Facebook pages have tens of thousands of fans. Organiza-tions are responding to stakeholder Tweets, and they are receiving commentsfrom fans on YouTube. While engaging with companies may not be people’sprimary reason for participating in social media, they are following companiesfor news and information about the company, products, and promotions, tooffer feedback, and to engage customer service.

View from Japan

Despite a reputation for leading-edge mobile devices and services and a nearubiquitous always-on culture, Japanese people tend to be reluctant to sharetheir thoughts and experiences publicly. Therefore, the social media adoptionhave been relatively slow among JapaneseRecently services such as YouTube,Wikipedia and Twitter, have seen significant volumes of traffic and have inspiredthe development of a swathe of homegrown services closely attuned to the re-quirements of Japanese consumers, including social network Mixi, portal/blogplatforms FC2 and Ameba and video sharing network Nico Nico Douga.

Despite this, Japanese organizations remain hesitant to use social media formarketing and communications, preferring more ‘traditional’ forms of onlinemarketing such as websites and online advertising when targeting Japaneseaudiences. And while companies such as Nissan, Panasonic and Sony are experimenting with various social media, unsurprisingly the focus of their activities in this area is aimed at international audiences

Frequency of Activity Per Platform

Table 1

Social Media Site Frequency of Activity Percent with Activity # of Posts

Twitter Past week 82% 27 Tweets

Facebook Past week 59% 3.6 Posts

YouTube Past month 68% 10 Videos

Blog Past month 36% 7 Blogs Posts

Fortune Global 100 Activity on Twitter in Past Week


TwitterNot only do companies have thousands of followers on Twitter, they are fol-lowing hundreds of customers, businesses and shareholders themselves. This mutual relationship creates a two-way link between an organization andits stakeholders. Forty-two percent of the companies were being tweetedabout by others, indicating that users are interested in the platform as a venueto share their opinions about companies and their products and activities(Table 2).

And, companies are responding. Overall 38% are responding to other posts,indicating a genuine conversation between the company and another user,and that companies are not just broadcasting information into a social mediaabyss. About one-third (32%) of companies are also re-tweeting contentposted by others (Graph 4).

Leaders of the pack on the Fortune Global 100 are Sony’s SonyPlayStationwith well over 115,000 followers and SonyPictures who is followed by almost50,000 people and following over 6,000 Twitterers themselves.

View from France

While French companies have not been shy about using social media tools,many of their Twitter accounts are limited to pushing out news (feeds from thecorporate website, HR postings, sports sponsorship results) and there is almost no interaction with stakeholders. In an effort to retain control over whatmight be said about them via social media, most companies have not yet madea transition from the classical “push” method of driving information out to a real discussion-based approach made possible by new services and tools. This narrow use of social media tools may be linked to a limited understandingof Social Media implications and its potential to grow a company’s business.But with Facebook attracting 18 million unique users per month in France —followed closely by Skyrock.com, a blogging platform aimed at teens 12-18with about 15 million unique users — developing global, integrated digitalstrategies are necessary to engage with these stakeholders online.

Interaction Between Companies and Users on Twitter

41%43%

49%

28%

32%

38%

23%25%


84%82%82%82%

Percent Retweeting

Percent of Accounts with Tweets from Company

Percent Responding to People’s Tweets

Table 2Graph 4

Number of FollowersPer Accounts

Number of UsersCompanies Follow

Proportion of FortuneGlobal 100 CompaniesThat Users are Tweeting About

Total 1,489 731 42%

U.S. 1,732 871 48%

Europe 1,081 429 36%

Asia-Pacific 1,769 899 33%


FacebookFacebook fan pages are acquiring fans continuously. Since our Fortune 100Social Media study in July 2009, the numbers of fans for many U.S. companieshave increased four-fold and sometimes even eight-fold. This representshigher engagement by corporations but also recognizes that consumers arebecoming more willing to engage with companies via social media. As we saw above, 59% of companies had posted on their Facebook fan pages inthe past week and almost as many received “likes” (51%) and comments(41%) from fans in that time frame (Graph 5).

Forty-three percent of fan pages had posts from fans. In fact, some fan pages,were primarily set up for customers to post comments and questions and then to receive responses from the company. Comments from customersranged the gamut from positive to negative, but skewed slightly positive (3.7 on a 5-point scale). However most comments were strongly positive or negative — not neutral — which drove the middle-of-the-road 3.7 average (Table 3).

Fortune Global 100 Activity on Fan Pages in Past Week

View from Italy

About one-half of Italian consumers who have Internet access have joinedFacebook, and Italian companies have decided to meet them there. With therecession digging into marketing and communications budgets, marketers arelooking for more affordable, alternative ways to get in touch with their audience,and Facebook fan pages and applications have become a “must” for thesecompanies to reach their customers and encourage them to become brandambassadors. Netlog, Badoo, MySpace, Windows Live rank after Facebook interms of subscribers. YouTube channels are also popular and companies arewilling to divert some of their budget to upload unconventional work in thehope of seeing them go viral.

Activity of Fortune Global 100 on Facebook Fan Pages in Past Week


36%

44%44%

51%49%

32%

41%46%

38%

56%

69%

82%

43%41%

51%

59%

Percent of companies whose posts have “likes” from fans

Percent of fan pages withposts from the company

Percent of companies posts with comments from fans

Percent of fan pages with posts from fans

Table 3Graph 5

Social Media Site Frequency of ActivityTone of Comments and Postsfrom Fans (on scale of 1-5)

Total 40,884 3.7

U.S. 53,941 3.6

Europe 46,400 4.1

Asia-Pacific 23,971 3.5

Subscribers Per Channels* Video Views Per Channel*

Total 452 38,958

U.S. 576 49,027

Europe 389 19,912

Asia-Pacific 383 73,456


You TubeThere is also great interest among YouTube viewers to see videos from cor-porations. Many corporate YouTube channels have at least several hundredsubscribers. Viewership of videos is also high, noticeably the more than 17 million views of WalMart videos and about 600,000 and 400,000 views ofLG and Honda videos respectively.

YouTube is also a venue for organizations to interact with stakeholders, notjust a place for sharing videos. Over one-half (54%) of the YouTube channelshave comments from viewers, including 71% of corporate video channels inAsia that boast responses from viewers (Graph 6).

Activity on YouTube in Past Month

View from Korea

Koreans participate in online “café” discussion boards, some of which boastmillions of members, as well as Cyworld, Korea’s top network, joined by almosthalf of Korean internet users. The anonymity provided by discussion boardscould explain why they remain the preferred type of online social network. Recently micro-blogging has become more mainstream through services suchas me2day (the dominant player in this space) and Twitter. Non-Korean-basedsocial media websites, such as Facebook, have little market share with the exception of YouTube, whose popularity was recently eclipsed by Africa and Pandora TV. Korean companies focus their efforts only on the top internet andsocial media channels for Koreans, and only multi-nationals that want to engage with Western markets, such as Hyundai, LG and Samsung, make useof Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Viewer Activity on YouTube

*Outliers have been removed

50%

71%71%

54% 52%


62%

77%

68%

Percent of Channels with Video Uploads from Company

Percent of Channels withComments from Viewers

Table 4Graph 6


Corporate BlogsWhile companies are relatively less active on their corporate blogs than on thesocial media channels, there is a lot of commenting from stakeholders on active corporate blogs. For example, only 11% of U.S. corporate blogs hadposts in the past month, but 90% of the blogs with posts had comments fromstakeholders (Graph 7). So, while some corporate blogs have fallen into attri-tion, corporate blogs that are active and have a strong purpose and followingprovide a useful two-way dialogue for organizations and their stakeholders.

It is important to include blogs in the social media mix. Twitter, Facebook,StumbleUpon, and other social networks can be very helpful in driving trafficto company blogs. No single social media tool can stand on its own. For acompany that wants a truly effective communications strategy, leveraging multiple social media tools for their individual strengths is required.

Activity on Corporate Blogs in Past Month

90%

71%77%76%

73%


83%

11%

36%

Percent of Corporate Blogs with Posts

Percent of Corporate Blogs with Viewer Comments

Graph 7

Renegade Social Media Accounts Abound

Of the companies that are engaged on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, mosthave multiple accounts. For example, each active company has 4.2 Twitteraccounts, 2.1 Facebook pages, and 1.6 YouTube channels. Organizations withblogs also had multiple blogs — an average of 4.2 — but those blogs wereoften maintained on the corporate site in a cohesive way (Graph 8).

For companies with multiple Twitter accounts, most often one was a primarycorporate account. The other accounts were started and managed by a localmarket office, represented a research or special-interest division at the com-pany or was related to a corporate sponsorship event the company was engaged in. Often it took a few views to determine which Twitter account wasthe primary corporate account — if there was one — and it was not alwayspossible to affirmatively determine if there was a primary corporate account.

Twitter Accounts

FacebookFan

Pages

YouTubeChannels

CorporateBlogs

4.2

2.1

1.6

4.2

Number of Accounts per Company

Graph 8



4.2

6.6

2.7

5.4


2.11.9

1.6

4.9


1.6

1.3

1.7

2.0

Number of YouTube Channelsper Company Number of Blogs per Company

Number of Twitter Accounts per CompanyDoes this matter? It probably does. When stakeholders are seeking a companyon Twitter, they are looking for something specific, whether it is company/fi-nancial news, product updates, customer service, etc, and if searching for thecompany presents a random, indistinguishable list of Twitter accounts, stakeholders will not know which is the one they should follow. Thus, thestakeholder leaves the search not finding what they need, or may follow thewrong account and become frustrated.

As well, there are “squatters” and abandoned accounts that muddy the land-scape. In our searches, we found many social media accounts that link to thecorporation’s home page, have the company logo, and many even have hun-dreds or thousands of followers, but not a single tweet or post. While theseaccounts or fan pages may be genuinely hosted by the company — or be setup by someone who hopes to take advantage of squatting in the company’srightful position — they are denigrating to the company’s presentation of itself in the social media space. While a company may be holding onto a Twitter handle while determining what their social media strategy should be, silence may be more deleterious than using the page to post press releasesand other basic corporate materials while a more sophisticated strategy isbeing figured out.

Between abandoned accounts and employees participating without companyguidance, the corporate voice runs the risk of being shaped by factors outsideof corporate headquarters. Social media has been heralded for giving stake-holders a voice in shaping a company’s message and employees should havethe same opportunity. However, companies need to develop a framework thatallows flexibility so that employees understand the parameters within whichthey can and should participate. It appears in many cases that companies aretrying to catch up and put a framework around activity that is already very active and potentially off strategy.


4.2

8.1

1.5

3.1

Number of Facebook Fan Pagesper Company

Graph 9a Graph 9b

Graph 9c Graph 9d


Monitor Your Own — And Competitors — Social Media Presence. There are robust software platforms available that allow you to not only

monitor content but also track influence and sentiment. You can also simplyconduct your own frequent searches on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and viaonline search to see what your stakeholders find when they seek out infor-mation on your company or bran. This is valuable content that can serve asa focus group of thousands to help you define your messaging moving forward. Monitoring what is being said about competitors can help you betterposition your brand online. If you encounter corporate accounts developedby your organizations employees, departments, business units, or local markets, identify the source and ensure the account is aligned with your Corporate Social Media Strategy.

Get Top Management “Buy In.” Encourage senior management to be aware of — and, optimally, participate

in social media — to foster appropriate participation by employees on behalf of the company. Setting a positive example is the best method of social media leadership.

Develop a Social Media Strategy. Social media reaches far beyond marketing and communications and

impacts every area of business today. Develop a social media strategy that isbased on overarching business objectives. This is critical to ensuring a cohesive brand voice and corporate message. This strategy must include resourcing and budget that reflects a commitment to engaging in social mediacontinuously. Conduct a Social Media Check-up to ensure you know yourcurrent online positioning. From there, it becomes more intuitive to develop a strategy that meets business goals and is measurable.

Define and Publish a Social Media Policy. Engaging with social media is an important element of business branding

and communications. However, it is important for employees to understandthe parameters around and the implications of their participation. Developinga policy that allows flexibility within a framework will give employees the crit-ical guidance they need to leverage social media on behalf of the company.

An Evidence-Based Approach to Social Media

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Be Prepared to Respond in Real Time. The social media conversation takes place in real time, and it is necessary

to be prepared to respond immediately. Even 24 hours may be too long toadress a viral chain of negative dialogue about your brand. Responding im-mediately can stave off reputation damage that may take months to repair.In addition to planning, running a social media crisis simulation is a useful exercise to put your crisis response strategy to the test.

Beyond Monitoring, Measure the Impact of Social Media Engagement.

Tracking numbers of followers, types of comments from stakeholders, or toneof comments is necessary to gauge how well your social media strategy isworking. Conduct research with stakeholders to determine how your messageis coming across and if stakeholders are finding the company responsive via social media channels. Consider social media engagement as another partof the marketing and communications mix, and incorporate social mediameasurement in the organization’s broader measurement of overall brand reputation and sales.

We believe that social media tools should be included in the corporate com-munications strategy. To help companies navigate the social media landscape, Burson-Marsteller has developed an Evidence-Based Communi-cations tool called the “Social Media Check-up ” which looks at how a company’s social media presence is impacting its overall online health andreputation. It assesses a company’s competitive position across the mostpopular social media platforms. The tool also helps an organization developa social media presence both internally and externally based on social mediabest practices.

Develop Internal Structure. Ensure that employees understand both the policy and the strategy and

have resources to turn to if and when they have questions. If you do not pro-vide this infrastructure internally, employees will have no guide and are morelikely to act on their own. It is also important to have a well defined structurearound social media management within the company. For some organiza-tions that may involve one employee in the communications function who isthe known manager of your social media strategy. In others it may involve atask-force approach with several employees taking responsibility for differentareas. Either way, the staff assigned to this role should serve as the internalresource for other employees who want to engage stakeholders in socialmedia. While you do not want to inhibit creativity or establish an onerousprocess for your organization’s social media involvement, having simpleguidelines that are flexible within the established framework can prevent achaotic social media presence.

Contribute to the Community. Take your cues from what stakeholders seem to be asking for and let them

influence your presence. For example, if consumers are asking about productspecifications online, create a Twitter account with updates about new prod-ucts and product hints and tips. If stakeholders are complaining about productand service issues, develop a social media channel to receive and respondto these issues. Additionally, it is critical that you use an authentic personaltone and provide content that is of value to users. This involves creating content that contributes to the community and helps them meet their needs as opposed to always providing content that is marketing or promo-tional in nature. If your social media presence is organized and consistent, stakeholders will find you and turn to you as a resource.

Participate in Good Times and in Bad. There will always be some situations where it is advisable to avoid partici-

pating, but generally speaking, negative content provides an opportunity fora company to share their point of view or set the record straight. Organizationsmust develop a process in advance that defines how and when they will respond to negative content or misinformation posted in social media. Thismay involve assessing influence of the site, the reach of the content, the authority of the blogger, or the tone of the dialogue and then deciding whetheror not to proceed. Social media content is highly searchable and can live forever. Therefore, deciding whether or not to leave misinformation unchal-lenged is critical. More often than not, responding provides a mechanism to“be on the record” and ensures that others who access the content also learnyour point of view.

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To learn more about the Global Social MediaCheck-up study, please contact:

United States

Erin ByrneChief Digital Strategist212.614.4824erin.byrne@proofdigitalmedia.comwww.twitter.com/erinbyrne

B.L. OchmanManaging Director of Emerging MediaProof Integrated [email protected]/whatsnext

William KempManaging DirectorProof Digital [email protected]

Latin America

Felix LeanderDigital [email protected]/fleander

EMEA

Daniel JörgEMEA Digital Practice [email protected]/danieljoerg

Asia Pacific

Charles PownallDigital Strategist [email protected]/cpownall

About this StudyData was collected between November 2009 and January 2010 among the top 100 companies of Fortune’s Global 500 companies. Sample size for countries/regions: U.S. = 29 companies, Europe = 48 companies, Asia-Pacific = 20 companies, Latin America = 3 companies. Because of the lowsample size for Latin America, data is only broken out for this region for overallactivity rates. “Active” accounts have at least one post in the past 3 months. Outliers have been noted. Data was collected by Burson-Marsteller’s globalresearch team.

About Burson-Marsteller Burson-Marsteller (www.burson-marsteller.com), established in 1953, is aleading global public relations and communications firm. It provides clientswith strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, advertising and web-related services. The firm’s seam-less worldwide network consists of 72 offices and 60 affiliate offices, togetheroperating in 85 countries across six continents. Burson-Marsteller is a part ofYoung & Rubicam Brands, a subsidiary of WPP (NASDAQ: WPPGY), one ofthe world’s leading communications services networks.

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The Global Social Media Check-up