79% of Fortune 500 companies are engaging with social media

A recent survey carried out by PR firm Burson-Marsteller has revealed that 79% of Fortune 500 companies have integrated social media into their marketing strategy. The preferred mediums of choice are Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs to communicate with customers and other stakeholders.

This diagram shows the breakdown across continents:

The most popular platform turned out to be twitter with two-thirds of the Fortune 100 having at least one Twitter account. In fact, on average they have 4.2 Twitter accounts!

50% have at least one Facebook fan page and 50% have at least one YouTube channel.  33% have at least one corporate blog and 20% use a combination of all four social media platforms.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are mostly West-oriented; Asia-Pacific companies don’t use them as much, instead preferring corporate blogs. When they do use Twitter or Facebook, it’s usually to engage consumers in Europe and North America.

The most revealing facts about the study was that the companies using these mediums have proven that consumers actually do like to engage with companies via social media, making all those channels (and the time and financial investment) worthwhile.

If nothing else, the fact that companies such as these have embraced social media means that they are predicting a solid growth in bottom line over the next few years and further. It’s therefore apparent that companies of all shapes and sizes need to also start integrating social media into their own marketing strategies – need some help with yours? Contact us to discuss.

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