CorpComms Magazine

Two thirds of FTSE 100 companies have an official Twitter account, but only 40 per cent use this channel actively while 26 companies have merely registered an account, branded their Twitter page and linked it back to the corporate website, according to new research on the social media activities of the UK's 100 largest listed companies by The Group.

Paul Greenwood, business development manager at The Group, said: 'Still 60 per cent of the FTSE 100 are not activity using the channel - not even to promote news. These companies are wasting an opportunity to simply and effectively communicate with stakeholders. It only takes a few minutes to register an account and a few minutes a day to maintain.'

Greenwood points out that companies that do not tweet run the risk of another organisation hijacking their brand. This is certainly the case when it comes to YouTube, where at least 42 FTSE 100 companies have had their company names hijacked.

Just 43 of the FTSE 100 companies have a YouTube channel, even though the site received two billion visitors every day. 'It is definitely worth considering having a presence on the site, especially if your channel generates nearly one and a half million views of your sponsorship and brand promotion videos,' added Greenwood.

One in five FTSE 100 companies have an external blog, but only nine of these can be considered a corporate blog that deals with issues, such as careers, heritage and thought-leadership rather than consumer-related topics.

'Blogging is the best way to engage in an ongoing conversation with stakeholders, providing space to articulate and explore positions. It demonstrates openness, engagement and responsiveness as a company and allows you to lead discussion and differentiate yourself from your peers,' said Greenwood. 'It is a channel that you can control and, although there are arguments against its use as a communications channel, if you're committed to having open and meaningful conversations with your stakeholders, this is the channel to adopt.'

Over the past six months, the number of FTSE 100 companies that have a presence on Facebook has jumped from 42 to 90, partly as a direct result of a new search facility on the social networking site that draws in Wikipedia descriptions of most of the FTSE 100 and displays them as a Facebook page.

The reality is that one quarter of FTSE 100 companies have a coordinated and coherent Facebook strategy, up from 20 six months ago.

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