• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, September 12, 2012

According to the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, while last year’s Fortune 500 study drew attention for the leveling off of blogging with only 23% hosting a public facing corporate blog in both 2010 and 2011, the latest iteration documents leap forward, as the F500 show the first signs of really embracing a range of social media tools.

In 2012, says the report, 139 companies (28%) had corporate blogs showing the largest increase in use of this tool since the 2008 study of the F500. These include two of the top five corporations (Exxon and Wal-Mart), leaving the other three without a public-facing blog. They include Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Berkshire Hathaway (replacing Bank of America in the top 5).  

The 139 corporations with blogs come from 54 of the 71 industries represented in the F500. Companies in the Telecommunications industry have 40% of their companies blogging.  Commercial Banks, Specialty Retail and Utilities have 25%-30%, and only one company in the Aerospace industry blogs.

The 17 industries with no companies blogging include Forest and Paper Products, Railroads, Tobacco, Toys/Sporting Goods, Real Estate, Building Materials/Glass, Trucking and Waste Management.

Since 2008, rank has influenced adoption of blogging in the F500. Those corporations ranked in the top 200, out blogged those in the bottom 200. This continues to hold with 54% of all F500 blogs coming from the top 200 corporations and 28% coming from those ranked 300-500 on the list.

In 2012, 90% of the F500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions. These blogs are kept current with frequent posts on a range of topics. There is frequent posting, on-going discussion and the ability to follow the conversation easily through RSS or email subscriptions. 

73% of the F500 have corporate Twitter accounts with a tweet in the past thirty days. This represents an 11% increase since last year. All of the top 10 companies (Exxon, Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, General Motors, General Electric, Berkshire Hathaway, Fannie Mae, Ford Motors and Hewlett-Packard) consistently post on their Twitter accounts. 

The 365 corporations with corporate Twitter accounts come from all of the 71 industries represented in the F500. The Food Consumer Products industry has 93% of their companies on Twitter.  Companies in the Specialty Retail industry and Aerospace industry have 86% of their companies on Twitter.

Google has the highest number of followers on Twitter among the 2012 F500, followed by Whole Foods Market, Starbucks, and Southwest Airlines. 

66% of the F500 are now on Facebook. The 332 corporations with corporate Facebook pages come from 69 of the 71 industries represented in the F500. Companies in the Specialty Retail industry have 89% of their companies on Facebook.  Telecommunications and Consumer Food Products industries have 80% and 86% with corporate Facebook pages. 

The report concludes by noting that The 2012 Fortune 500 is warming up to the new communications tools that have taken so many other sectors by storm.  In the past year, these business giants have increased their adoption of blogging by 5%, their use of Twitter for corporate communications by 11% and their use of Facebook pages by 8%.  Sixty-two percent of the 2012 F500 have corporate YouTube accounts and 2% are posting on Pinterest. These latest numbers show a renewed interest that includes using these tools for engagement, hiring and fundraising as well as for corporate advancement. 

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