SUSTY SOCIAL MEDIA RANKING - contextsustainability.com€¦ · Welcome to our Susty Social Media Ranking. About this report Our Susty Social Media Ranking reveals how ... The optimum

1 CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT www.contextsustainability.com @Context_Group

108 million people follow Katy Perry on Twitter. Taylor Swift has 84 million followers while her nemesis Kanye West, aka Ye, has a mere 28 million. The king and queen of Instagram are soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with 143 million followers, and Selena Gomez with 144 million.

That’s very impressive. But let’s come way, way down to earth.

The two biggest sustainability Twitter stars are Mike Barry of UK retailer Marks & Spencer with 15,100 followers and Lisa Jackson of Apple with 13,500 followers.

Does their relative obscurity mean they’re wasting their time with social media? Should they terminate their twittering and return to their spreadsheets to continue counting that carbon?

Absolutely not! Our susty social media stars are engaged with thousands of people. They may never catch Kanye and Katy, but at least Mike and Lisa are fully participating in the conversation. They are firmly plugged into the zeitgeist and making important friends along the way for themselves and their companies.

We think they’re winners and the social media wallflowers are missing out, big time. That’s why we’ve put 100 leading companies under the Context spotlight, to find what the sustainability social media winners can teach us.

Welcome to our Susty Social Media Ranking.

About this report

Our Susty Social Media Ranking reveals how 100 leading companies with strong sustainability reputations are using social media, and who is having the most success. We included those companies we expected to be most active in the sustainability conversation – 66 in the US and 34 in Europe.

We dug deep into their social media activities to see what was working for them, and what was not. This produced our ranking. But better still, it gave us the data to answer the key social media questions we get asked by clients all the time. Read on for the insight, the answers, and the digital detail.

CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT

SUSTY SOCIAL MEDIA RANKING

https://www.contextsustainability.com

https://twitter.com/context_group?lang=en


Our starting point: platforms

We started by looking at the platforms companies are using - Facebook, LinkedIn, and Instagram are all quite frequently used, but Twitter is the prevalent platform for corporate sustainability (see table).

Most companies in the survey are using a blend of social media platforms, and often more than one handle within each platform. Twitter and LinkedIn are best suited to expert communications whereas Facebook and Instagram are a better fit for consumer communications. Interestingly, no clear trend is apparent between B2C and B2B companies’ choice of platform. We expected consumer brands to be bigger on Facebook and Instagram, but this is not the case.

The optimum strategy depends on your target audience, content, and objectives. Budget is also important since all the platforms allow you to pay to enhance the audience for your posts. Paid content can quite accurately target users with specific profiles.

Our Twitter Focus After observing that Twitter is the common platform, we based our ranking on data from Twitter postings during June 2018. This simplified the analysis and enabled direct comparison between companies. Where a company uses more than one Twitter handle for sustainability, we pulled data from all handles (see page 5).

To compile the ranking we defined three success metrics:

1. Frequency of sustainability-related posts – regular posting is a key factor in building an audience

2. Number of influencer followers (see definition on page 8) – an indication your posts are credible and relevant

3. Amount of engagement generated (likes, retweets, and replies) – more engagement is the overall objective.

These were given equal weight in our overall ranking.

Adobe

AT&TAutodeskCiscoCVSDellGeneral ElectricHPEIBMIntelJohnson & Johnson Marks & SpencerMars, Inc.MicrosoftNestléNovartisPatagoniaSAPSchneider ElectricSiemens

These companies use their main corporate Twitter handle for sustainability posts

TOP 20 PLATFORM USE




FINDINGS The Top 10

Cisco is the number one company in our ranking - combining the company’s position across our three success metrics: frequency of posts, number of influencer followers, and amount of engagement. Microsoft is number two, followed by Johnson & Johnson, number three. The top 10 companies are shown in the “Overall Ranking” table on the right, with companies tied for sixth and ninth place. Interestingly, six of the top seven positions went to digital technology companies.

Cisco uses its main corporate handle for sustainability posts as well as a dedicated sustainability handle, and a sustainability leader personal handle. The company made 175 sustainability posts in the month of the survey, is followed by 119 influencers, and received 6,724 engagements — a remarkable result for a B2B brand.

Microsoft came a close second, also using all three types of handles. The company made 70 posts, is followed by 143 influencers, and achieved easily the highest number of engagements in our survey, 18,493 — boosted by the over eight million followers of Microsoft’s main corporate handle.

In third, Johnson & Johnson used two handles, posting 162 times. The company has 68 influencer followers and received 3,100 engagements. Johnson & Johnson was the highest ranked consumer brand, followed by Marks & Spencer in ninth place.

Perhaps the most surprising omission from the Top 10 is Unilever, placed 31st. Unilever is widely admired for its Sustainable Living Plan and has topped the Globescan Sustainability Leaders survey since 2011. They score well on influencer followers, with the second highest number, 160. But the company posts infrequently — only 13 posts on its main corporate handle — and achieved a modest 519 engagements.

The “Ranking by Success Metrics” table shows Cisco was first in frequency, and Microsoft first in engagement. Intel did not appear in the overall top 10, despite ranking first in influencer following. The overall ranking is determined by averaging a company’s position across the three success metrics.

OVERALL RANKING TOP 10 (positions out of 100) Company Overall Ranking Country

Cisco 1 USA

Microsoft 2 USA

Johnson & Johnson 3 USA

Autodesk 4 USA

IBM 5 USA

SAP =6 Germany

HPE =6 USA

Nestlé 8 Switzerland

Marks & Spencer =9 UK

Schneider Electric =9 France

RANKING BY SUCCESS METRICS (positions out of 100) Company Frequency

RankingInfluencer Ranking

Engagement Ranking

Cisco 1 8 4

Microsoft 12 4 1

Johnson & Johnson 2 16 12

Autodesk 3 12 17

IBM 22 14 6

SAP 7 7 35

HPE 4 9 36

Nestlé 5 35 10

Marks & Spencer 13 2 37

Schneider Electric 7 19 26



https://globescan.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/GlobeScan-SustainAbility-Leaders-Survey-2018-Report.pdf


1 Cisco2 Microsoft 3 Johnson & Johnson 4 Autodesk 5 IBM

=6 SAP=6 HPE

8 Nestlé =9 Marks & Spencer=9 Schneider Electric

11 AT&T=12 Intel=12 Siemens

14 General Electric15 Patagonia16 CVS17 Adobe18 Dell19 Mars, Inc.20 Novartis21 Walmart22 Procter & Gamble23 ABB24 The Home Depot

=25 Levi’s

=25 Facebook27 WeWork28 Oracle

=29 Bayer=29 Syngenta

31 Unilever=32 Interface=32 Ericsson

34 UPS=35 Intuit=35 3M

37 Avery Dennison38 Genentech

=39 FedEx=39 REI

41 Salesforce 42 Advanced Micro Devices43 Gilead Sciences44 Philips45 Deutsche Post 46 Olam47 Southwest Airlines48 JetBlue Airways49 Apple50 General Mills

51 Danone52 GSK

=53 Gap=53 AECOM=55 eBay=55 Pfizer =55 Reckitt Benckiser

58 Juniper Networks=59 Etsy=59 Caterpillar

61 Merck62 Medtronic63 Viacom64 Nordstrom 65 Herman Miller66 Target 67 Shire68 Chipotle69 Starbucks70 Carrefour71 H&M72 VF Corporation

=73 LEGO=73 Cigna

75 IKEA Group

76 AB InBev=77 Kering=77 Barry Callebaut

79 Disney80 Whole Foods Market

=81 Sony=81 Allergan

83 Applied Materials=84 Edwards Lifesciences=84 Keysight Technologies

86 Equinix87 Aetna88 Sears89 Nike90 Lowe’s91 ALDI92 Kroger93 Sainsbury’s94 Inter IKEA Group95 Albertsons 96 Ahold Delhaize97 Agilent Technologies98 Kohl’s99 Walgreens

100 Adidas

FINDINGS Overall ranking




Should we use our main corporate handle or a dedicated sustainability handle?

We identified three categories of Twitter sustainability handles in use by companies and included data from all three in our ranking.

1. Main corporate handle – 91 of the 100 companies in our survey made sustainability posts on their corporate handles (we used a broad definition of sustainability, from volunteering to climate change)

2. Dedicated sustainability handle – 33 companies had a dedicated handle

3. Personal handle of sustainability leader – 52 companies had sustainability leaders with handles

There are advantages to each type of handle. Posting sustainability content on your main corporate handle demonstrates mainstreaming of sustainability in your company. Usually the corporate handle has the most followers, meaning a broad audience will see your sustainability posts. However, sustainability influencers are more inclined to follow dedicated sustainability handles and even more so personal sustainability leader handles.

guidanceIt is beneficial to have at least one specialized sustainability handle in addition to the main corporate handle. A personal handle for your sustainability leader can be powerful in building an influencer network. The downside in investing in a personal handle is the potential loss of the resource if the individual leaves the company or changes role.

ANALYSIS

NUMBER OF COMPANIES USING EACH HANDLE TYPE

MAIN CORPORATE HANDLE

PERSONAL HANDLE OF SUSTAINABILITY LEADER

DEDICATED SUSTAINABILITY HANDLE

9133

52




guidanceTwo to three posts a day from each handle is a good guideline.This may seem like a lot, but content moves fast on Twitter. To improve posting frequency you can retweet and cross-post between your handles because they have different followers. The challenge may be to create compelling content at this frequency. It goes without saying that quality of posts is more important than quantity.

Posting frequency was highest on dedicated sustainability handles with an average of 29 posts per month. Corporate handles averaged 19 sustainability posts per month. The regular posting frequency of both corporate and dedicated sustainability handles suggests the accounts are being managed by social media teams or agencies.

Sustainability leader handles were the least frequent posters. The average frequency was only five posts per month, suggesting that these are managed by the individuals.

Our Top 10 ranked companies averaged 111 sustainability posts across their handles during the survey month.

The company with the most sustainability content integrated in its corporate handle was Nestlé with 118 posts, followed by Syngenta with 116. Nine companies in our research did not post any sustainability content on their corporate handles.

Cisco made the most posts on its dedicated sustainability handle with 103, followed by HPE and CVS with 84. Five companies with dedicated sustainability handles made no posts.

Mike Barry of Marks & Spencer (@PlanAMikeBarry) was the most prolific poster on his personal handle, with 68, followed by HPE’s Chris Wellise (@Cwellise) with 40 and Autodesk’s Lynelle Cameron with 33. This category also has the greatest number of inactive accounts — 22 sustainability leaders made no posts on their handles during our survey month.

Boardmeeting

DeliverReport

Pick up kids

Visit parents

Lunch

68posts 33

posts

40posts

Mike Barry Marks & Spencer

@PlanAMikeBarryLynelle Cameron

Autodesk

@LynelleCameron

Chris Wellise HPE

@Cwellise

How frequently should we post?ANALYSIS




The follower numbers for handles reflect the fame of the brand, the marketing investment in building the brand, and how long the handle has been in existence. Most corporate handles include some sustainability posts (mixed in with marketing content) but it’s impossible to know what proportion of the followers are primarily there for sustainability content.

The @WeAreIntel dedicated sustainability handle is in a league of its own with 475,000 followers.

The personal sustainability leaders’ handles are topped by Marks & Spencer’s @PlanAMikeBarry with 15,100 followers, and Apple’s @LisaPJackson with 13,500.

guidanceThere’s no fixed goal for the number of followers to aim for.If you are just getting started, be prepared for a steady build, and aim initially for 10,000 followers for a dedicated sustainability handle and 1,000 for a personal sustainability leader’s handle.

Regular posts, interesting content, and engaging with influencers will all add to your following.

Top 10 by following

Intel 475,000

Johnson & Johnson 93,800

Philips 58,200

CVS 39,700

Nike 37,000

Siemens 33,700

Walmart 22,900

Disney 21,500

Microsoft 20,100

The Home Depot 18,600

Top 10 by following

Marks & Spencer 15,100

Apple 13,500

Intel 10,070

Siemens 6,082

FedEx 4,379

Levi’s 3,313

Avery Dennison 2,368

Autodesk 1,783

Walmart 1,702

Bayer 1,624



How many followers should we have?ANALYSIS




While it’s a standard social media goal to build a following, the quality of your followers is equally as important as the total number. “Influencers” have large followings of their own or have a high profile in their field. They are highly valued because of their ability to spread your messages by re-tweeting your content.

We scanned the follower lists of our 100 sample companies, for sustainability social influencers, using two independent lists of influencers: 1. GreenBiz Corporate Sustainability Twitterati 2018 and 2. SustMeme CSR & Business Top 5001.

We found that influencers prefer to follow personal sustainability leaders over company handles. The top 7 personal handles have more influencer followers than any other handle from their company, demonstrating the power of personal relationships over anonymous corporate profiles (see tables, right).

1 We used the top 300

guidanceGaining sustainability influencers as followers is an important goal.Consider social media relationships as an extension of your networking and thought leadership. Aim for 100 influencer followers across your handles.

Top 10 by influencer following

Unilever 134

Patagonia 85

Whole Foods Market 65

Interface 59

Starbucks 55

UPS 49

Cisco 46

General Electric 45

Marks & Spencer 42

Levi’s 42


SAP 94

HPE 76

Dell 73

Cisco 67

Microsoft 65

Intel 43

IBM 38

Schneider Electric 37

Johnson & Johnson 36

Unilever 26


Marks & Spencer 142

Intel 131

FedEx 104

Levi’s 99

Autodesk 55

General Mills 46

Microsoft 43

Interface 33

JetBlue Airways 33

Apple 32




Is it important to have influencer followers?ANALYSIS



https://www.greenbiz.com/article/corporate-sustainability-twitterati-2018

https://www.greenbiz.com/article/corporate-sustainability-twitterati-2018

https://sustmeme.com/top-500-leaderboards/csr-business-top-500/


“Engagements” are the sign that your posts are getting noticed. The number represents each time a person ‘likes’, ‘replies’ or ‘retweets’ your post. In other words, the number of times somebody has actively responded.

Microsoft tops the corporate handle engagements, followed by AT&T, and Siemens. The top three dedicated sustainability handles were The Home Depot, Cisco, and Siemens and the top three personal handles were Apple, Marks & Spencer, and Siemens. Siemens makes the top 10 in all three categories.

guidanceBe realistic and set progressive targets to increase engagement.Experiment with different types of content and posting times to see how you can maximize engagement from each post. Microsoft’s nearly 18k per month will be out of reach for many companies, but keep in mind that each time someone likes, replies or retweets your post, you take a small step to getting noticed and building a relationship. Little by little, these interactions add up.

Top 10 by engagement

Microsoft 17,986

AT&T 7,315

Siemens 5,238

IBM 4,967

Facebook 4,437

Adobe 4,324

Cisco 4,309

ABB 4,008

Patagonia 3,934

Nestlé 3,484


The Home Depot 2,875

Cisco 2,399

Siemens 2,140

AT&T 1,868

Advanced Micro Devices 1,734

Adobe 1,214

CVS 1,076

Dell 992

SAP 892

Johnson & Johnson 822


Apple 789

Marks & Spencer 760

Siemens 273

HPE 209

Autodesk 172

Interface 119

Walmart 118

Levi’s 86

Carrefour 71

IBM 68




How much engagement should we aim for?

ANALYSIS



10 CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT

www.contextsustainability.comLondon [email protected]

Los Angeles [email protected]

Design by www.theayres.co.uk. Thanks to David Ayres for his illustrations.© Context Group Limited 2018

We love helping you build a better business. We’re all about clear thinking, smart messaging, and straight talking. We’ve been doing it for 21 years, supported by some of the brightest and most creative minds in sustainability.

Social media

We expand your audience, reaching customers, influencers, and employees with bespoke, bite-sized content. We drive engagement and boost your following with our full-service solution:

l Platform selection and strategy

l Content development and scheduling

l Monitoring and engagement

l Analytics and reporting

Sustainability strategyWe have a tool-kit of services to analyze your position and develop a plan of action – always in support of your business objectives. These include:

l Material issues assessment

l Stakeholder mapping and engagement

l Strategy development

l Implementation planning

l Risk forecasting and management

l Issue briefings

l Sector and best practice benchmarking

CommunicationsWe tell your sustainability story creatively, clearly, and with credibility. We plan and execute compelling communications campaigns for external and internal audiences across all media. Our communications tool-kit includes:

l Websites

l Sustainability reporting

l Content, from infographics to video

l Employee and management briefings

l Executive presentations

l Event and meeting facilitation


DATA/1FREQUENCY INFLUENCER FOLLOWING ENGAGEMENTS

3M 21 - 0 22 - 12 809 - - ABB 61 - - 15 - - 4,008 - - AB InBev 7 - - 9 - - 301 - - Adidas 0 - - 4 - - - - - Adobe 21 5 0 22 1 19 4,324 1,214 - Advanced Micro Devices 2 12 1 11 5 3 509 1,734 - AECOM 16 - 3 14 - 0 457 - 31 Aetna 7 - 0 8 - 0 147 - - Agilent 1 - - 1 - - 2 - - Ahold Delhaize 3 - - 1 - - 16 - - Albertsons 3 - 0 1 - 0 38 - - ALDI 1 - - 3 - - 114 - - Allergan 6 - - 3 - - 435 - - Apple 0 - 6 0 - 32 - - 789 Applied Materials 2 8 - 12 1 - 39 51 - AT&T 35 31 - 16 15 - 7,315 1,868 - Autodesk 47 47 33 23 18 55 1,581 342 172 Avery Dennison 41 - 0 31 - 1 463 - - Barry Callebaut 16 - 1 5 - 0 184 - 6 Bayer 36 0 1 5 6 11 1,956 - 2 Carrefour 25 - 7 3 - 0 107 - 71 Caterpillar 9 9 - 14 2 - 289 49 - Chipotle 1 - - 15 - - 806 - - Cigna 18 - 0 9 - 4 18 - - Cisco 69 103 3 46 67 6 4,309 2,399 16

Data represents sustainability posts during June 2018.

Key:








CVS 0 84 7 7 12 28 - 1,076 27 Danone 17 - - 23 - - 420 - - Dell 13 30 - 27 73 - 13 992 - Deutsche Post 59 - 4 9 - 0 634 - 9 Disney 0 1 0 13 18 1 - 31 - eBay 4 - 7 11 - 28 178 - 7 Edwards Lifesciences 15 - - 1 - - 196 - - Equinix 18 - 0 2 - 0 82 - 0 Ericsson 16 30 - 9 25 - 349 106 - Etsy 6 - 0 26 - 0 532 - 0 Facebook 22 - 3 26 - 0 4,437 - - FedEx 4 - 3 26 - 104 607 - 8 Gap 3 8 1 12 24 12 50 99 - General Electric 13 36 0 45 6 1 1,772 319 - General Mills 8 - 3 30 - 46 125 - - Genentech 47 - 0 8 - 0 2,455 - - Gilead Sciences 80 - - 2 - - 1,151 - - GSK 10 - - 31 - - 413 - - H&M 1 0 - 24 0 - 311 0 - Herman Miller 9 - - 27 - - 289 - - The Home Depot 3 27 - 16 12 - 441 2,875 - HPE 2 84 40 12 76 28 62 626 209 IBM 12 33 3 34 38 8 4,967 376 68 IKEA Group 2 - 0 6 - 14 196 - - Intel 8 18 2 35 43 131 1,344 414 8


Key:











Inter IKEA Group 1 - - 4 - - 18 - - Interface 15 - 17 59 - 33 176 - 119 Intuit 21 - 0 15 - 29 544 - - JetBlue Airways 2 - 1 16 - 33 761 - - Johnson & Johnson 79 83 - 32 36 - 2,278 822 - Juniper Networks 30 - 4 5 - 2 465 - 10 Kering 9 - - 14 - - 137 - - Keysight Technologies 18 - - 0 - - 162 - - Kohl’s 0 - - 9 - - - - - Kroger 1 - - 7 - - 16 - - LEGO 1 - - 15 - - 395 - - Levi’s 10 - 9 42 - 99 557 - 86 Lowe’s 3 - - 4 - - 51 - - Marks & Spencer 1 - 68 42 - 142 130 - 760 Mars, Inc. 46 - - 39 - - 1,230 - - Medtronic 9 13 - 7 5 - 170 228 - Merck 6 - 0 14 - 0 1,148 - - Microsoft 35 34 1 35 65 43 17,986 502 5 Nestlé 118 - - 33 - - 3,484 - - Nike 0 0 - 25 0 - - - - Nordstrom 6 - 7 9 - 9 391 - 21 Novartis 19 35 - 27 5 - 784 366 - Olam 44 - - 20 - - 345 - - Oracle 47 23 4 8 1 2 2,609 392 50 Patagonia 20 - 0 85 - 23 3,934 - -


Key:











Pfizer 47 - - 21 - - 47 - - Philips 4 13 0 22 2 0 465 552 - Procter & Gamble 32 - - 40 - - 1,222 - 0Reckitt Benckiser 6 - - 9 - - 2,321 - - REI 8 - 0 35 - 1 1,922 - 0 Sainsbury's 0 - - 16 - - - - - Salesforce 46 - 4 34 - 22 46 - 64 SAP 25 81 0 25 94 1 25 892 - Schneider Electric 55 51 0 21 37 2 1,012 171 - Sears 4 0 0 7 7 0 71 - - Shire 33 - - 3 - - 334 - - Siemens 46 18 4 16 8 3 5,238 2,140 273 Sony 1 - - 15 - - 216 - - Southwest Airlines 8 - - 27 - - 1,145 - - Starbucks 5 - - 55 - - 5 - - Syngenta 116 - - 12 - - 1,328 - - Target 1 - 1 21 - 18 193 - 6 Unilever 13 0 - 134 26 - 519 0 - UPS 16 - - 49 - - 925 - - VF Corporation 18 - - 8 - - 127 - - Viacom 16 2 - 9 7 - 218 21 - Walgreens 0 - 0 6 - 0 - - - Walmart 2 31 4 25 9 28 172 563 118 WeWork 60 - 0 12 - 6 2,049 - - Whole Foods Market 0 - - 65 - - - - -


Key:









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SUSTY SOCIAL MEDIA RANKING - contextsustainability.com€¦ · Welcome to our Susty Social Media Ranking. About this report Our Susty Social Media Ranking reveals how ... The optimum