Fortune Magazine annually compiles the “Fortune 500” list of America’s largest corporations. Because of the hugely influential role that these companies play in the business world,
studying their adoption and use of social media tools offers important insights into the future of commerce, says the report. The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research
began studies on social media adoption among the F500 in 2008, and has repeated that study every year since.
According to the study in 2011, F500 blogging leveled off with only 23% hosting a
public facing corporate blog. However, In 2012, there was a leap forward and 28% hosted public facing blogs. That surge continues with the latest iteration showing 34% of these corporate giants
creating and sharing content through blogs. A company was counted as having a blog if they had a public-facing corporate blog from the primary corporation with current posts.
Adoption of this mature social media tool by these companies, says the report, signals the return of the online in-depth conversation, thought leadership and original content development popular
with early corporate adopters of blogging.
In 2013, 171 companies (34%) 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 (WalMart and Exxon), leaving the other three (Chevron, Phillips 66 and Berkshire Hathaway) without a public-facing blog.
Fortune 500 Corporations with Public Blogs (% of Total; 2010-2013) |
Year | % of F500 |
2010 | 23% |
2011 | 23 |
2012 | 28 |
2013 | 34 |
Source: U of Mass Dartmouth, July 2013 |
The 171
corporations with blogs come from 58 of the 75 industries represented in the 2013 study. The percent of corporations blogging varies by industry. 53% of the companies in the Telecommunications
industry are blogging. Specialty Retail has 46% of their companies with corporate blogs. In contrast, only two (13%) companies in the Motor Vehicles and Parts industry blog. Industries with no
blogs include Tobacco, Pharmaceuticals and Toys and Sporting Goods.
Corporate Blogs by Industry |
| Number of Companies
w/blogs | Percent |
Telecommunications | 9/17 | 53% |
Specialty Retailers | 10/22 | 46% |
Food Consumer Products | 5/15 | 33% |
Utilities: Gas and
Electric | 6/23 | 26% |
Aerospace and Defense | 3/12 | 25% |
Commercial Banks | 4/18 | 22% |
Chemicals | 3/15 | 20% |
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Stock) | 2/10 | 20% |
Motor Vehicles and Parts | 2/15 | 13% |
Source: U of Mass Dartmouth, July 2013 |
Since
the first study in 2008, rank influences adoption of blogging in the F500. Those corporations ranked in the top 200, out blogged those in the bottom 200, which continues to hold with 47% of all F500
blogs coming from the top 200 corporations and 36% coming from those ranked 300-500 on the list. With nearly half of all F500 blogs coming from the top 200 corporations, rank continues to be a factor
in the use of this tool. In 2013, 79% of the F500 blogs are kept current, take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions.
These blogs are kept current with frequent posts on a range of
topics. It appears that those companies that have made the decision to blog have utilized the tool well. There is frequent posting, on-going discussion and the ability to follow the conversation
easily through RSS or email subscriptions. While there are more blogs this year, this level of engagement has been typical. Those companies that choose to blog, use the tool effectively.
77%
of the F500 have corporate Twitter accounts with a tweet in the past thirty days, a 4% increase since last year. Eight of the top 10 companies (WalMart, Exxon, Chevron, Phillips 66, Apple, General
Motors, General Electric and Ford Motors) consistently post on their Twitter accounts.
The 387 500 corporations with Twitter accounts come from 72 of the 75 industries represented in the F500.
The Commercial Bank industry has 94% and the Food Consumer Products industry has 93% of their companies on Twitter. Companies in the Specialty Retail industry have 91% of their companies on Twitter.
Other industries listed have half or more of their companies using this platform.
Corporate Twitter Accounts by Industry |
| Number of Companies w/Twitter
Accounts | Percent |
Commercial Banks | 17/18 | 94% |
Food Consumer Products | 13/15 | 93% |
Specialty Retailers | 20/22 | 91% |
Chemicals | 13/15 | 87% |
Telecommunications | 14/17 | 82% |
Utilities: Gas and Electric | 18/23 | 73% |
Aerospace and Defense | 8/12 | 67% |
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Stock) | 9/17 | 53% |
Motor Vehicles and Parts | 8/15 | 53% |
Source: U of Mass
Dartmouth, July 2013 |
43% of the Twitter accounts belong to the companies in the top 200 on the list, while 36% come from those ranked in the bottom 200.
Those ranked higher in the 2013 F500 are more likely to adopt Twitter than their lower ranked counterparts, following the same pattern as blogging.
70% of the F500 are now on Facebook. Nine of
the top 10 companies have Facebook pages. The 348 corporations with Facebook pages come from 72 of the 75 industries represented in the F500.
Corporate Facebook Pages by Industry |
| Number of Companies w/Facebook Pages | Percent |
Specialty Retailers | 21/22 | 96% |
Telecommunications | 15/17 | 88% |
Aerospace and Defense | 10/12 | 83% |
Commercial Banks | 14/18 | 78% |
Chemicals | 11/15 | 73% |
Food Consumer Products | 11/15 | 73% |
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Stock) | 11/17 | 65% |
Utilities: Gas and Electric | 10/23 | 44% |
Motor Vehicles and Parts | 6/15 | 40% |
Source: U of Mass
Dartmouth, July 2013 |
Last year one hundred fifteen companies (23%) had neither a Twitter account nor a Facebook presence. This year that number has
dropped to eighty-four companies (17%).
Facebook pages among the F500 follow the same pattern of adoption by rank as Twitter and blogging. 41% of the top 200 have a corporate Facebook page
while 38% of the bottom 200 use this tool. Rank clearly impacts social media adoption.
Eighteen companies are new to the Fortune 500 list, listed with their 2012 rank in the Fortune 1000:
New To The Fortune 500 List |
Industry | Corporation | 2013 Rank | 2012
Rank | Change in Rank |
Securities | KKR | 277 | 854 | +577 |
Telecommunications | Level 3 Communications | 398 | 541 | +143 |
Telecommunications | Windstream | 414 | 544 | +130 |
Utilities: Gas and
Electric | Northeast Utilities | 402 | 527 | +125 |
Engineering, Construction | Quanta Services | 397 | 513 | +116 |
Internet Services and Retailing | Facebook | 482 | 598 | +116 |
Construction and Farm Machinery | Joy Global | 446 | 535 | +89 |
Pharmaceuticals | Actavis | 432 | 515 | +83 |
Internet
Services and Retailing | Priceline.com | 473 | 539 | +66 |
Wholesalers: Food and Grocery | United Natural Foods | 474 | 520 | +46 |
Real Estate | Simon Property Group | 497 | 543 | +46 |
Wholesalers: Food and Grocery | Andersons | 472 | 517 | +45 |
Trucking, Truck Leasing | J.B. Hunt Transport
Services | 486 | 521 | +35 |
Airlines | JetBlue Airways | 495 | 524 | +29 |
Securities | Jones Financial | 491 | 516 | +25 |
Computer Software | CA | 499 | 522 | +23 |
Insurance: | American Financial Group | 485 | 505 | +20 |
Insurance: | Old Republic International | 496 | 511 | +15 |
Source: U of
Mass Dartmouth, July 2013 |
Additional social network considerations among the Fortune 500:
- 69% of corporate YouTube accounts were found in
the 2013 F500, a 7% increase from last year.
- In 2012, 2% of F500 companies had Pinterest accounts. This year that number has grown to 45 companies or 9%.
- 35% of the 2013
Fortune 500 have active Google+ accounts. 19% have Google+ corporate accounts that have not yet become active.
- 9% of the 2013 F500 have a corporate Instagram Account, although 1 is
inactive.
- 9% of the 2013 F500 have corporate Foursquare accounts for use on mobile devices.
- 59% of the companies using social media link to their tools from their
corporate homepages. All of the others require additional searching to locate these engagement tools.
The report concludes by noting that these business titans are choosing from
a myriad of new communications tools while continuing to adopt the more mature tool of blogging. These behemoths prefer Twitter to Facebook and are experimenting with new tools such as Google+,
Foursquare and Instagram. This is a group that now seems comfortable and even excited with its newfound ability to engage its vendors, partners, customers and others in ways that could not have
been imagined when most of their corporations began.
The study was conducted by Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., Ava M. Lescault, MBA and Stephanie Wright, Charlton College of Business
Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
For additional information, please visit
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