The social media landscape can still be frightening territory for top UK companies attempting to navigate the pitfalls they’ve seen their contemporaries come up against. However, new research by interactive communication agency The Group has shown that usage of social media platforms among FTSE100 companies is gradually on the rise.

 

Since November 2009, The Group has surveyed social media use amongst the top 100 listed companies in the UK at six-monthly intervals. As of December 2010, the headline statistics are that 45% of FTSE100 companies have official Twitter accounts, with 39% running corporate YouTube channels. 25% of the companies have a corporate presence on Facebook, and just 12% have a corporate blog.

 

Twitter use amongst the companies has increased by almost 50% since monitoring started, and it’s clearly the most popular social media channel amongst the FTSE100. Moreover, another 17 companies on top of the 45 already using Twitter have dormant holding accounts that are yet to become active.

 

It may be that Twitter’s appeal outranks that of YouTube and Facebook because it is relatively straightforward to establish and monitor corporate presence on the platform. With the exception of certain well-publicised tweeting slip-ups amongst large corporations, Twitter allows companies to broadcast messages as well as engage with a variety of audiences.

 

Although use of Facebook and YouTube has increased since tracking began, neither channel has recorded increased usage since June 2010. Both Facebook and YouTube pose problems for corporate users since there are as yet few templates among top level companies for best practice on the platforms – the FTSE100 companies would seem to be wary of these resources which have undeniable potential for corporate communications.

 

Paul Squires, managing director of the digital creative agency Perera, points out the importance of context to these results: “While the statistics clearly show an increasing interest in volume terms, such ‘official channels’ need to be contextualised in a wider strategy, based on where stakeholder groups congregate. Do you really require an account on Money Saving Expert for your B2C business? None of these endeavours are difficult to do, but careful planning and execution is vital.”

 

Corporate blogs fared the worst amongst the channels surveyed, with just twelve companies in the top 100 blogging regularly on company operations and enabling discussion through comments. Those companies that are blogging, however, are addressing multiple audiences and topics, and this is an area where The Group expects continued growth.

 

The development of the media landscape for FTSE100 companies over the coming months and years is as yet unknown, but there is one certainty – the need for top companies to get to grips with social media isn’t fading into the background