CorpComms Magazine

Corporate blogging has declined among the 'Inc. 500', representing the fastest-growing private companies in North America, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts in Dartmouth.

Instead the 2011 Inc. 500 Social Media Update: Blogging Declines As Newer Tools Rule found there has been an increase in adoption of social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Half of the 500 fastest growing private companies blogged in 2010, up five percentage points on the previous year,  but now just 37 per cent blog, a figure that is lower than 2008 when it stood at 39 per cent. The report says: 'This decline mirrors a trend in other sectors as this mature tool evolves into other forms or is replaced by communication through Facebook or Twitter.'

Marketing and advertising firms are most likely to blog whereas companies in government services and construction are least likely to do so. Three in four companies use Facebook while 73 per cent use LinkedIn.

As many as 90 per cent of executives surveyed said that social media tools are important for brand awareness and company reputation, while almost the same amount consider these tools important for generating website traffic. More than 70 per cent said that social tools are important for customer support programmes.

The report revealed that more than two thirds of companies in the Inc. 500 monitor their social media buzz, down by two percentage points from 70 per cent in 2010.

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