How Social is the FTSE 100?

In our ongoing development of Skyttle Friends Facebook Analytics, we’re always fascinated to see how big brands use Facebook as a marketing and customer service tool. And so it was with great interest that we read the recent research report from Threepipe Communications which revealed some interesting findings about FTSE 100 firms’ use of social media.

Perhaps most surprising is that two thirds of the FTSE 100 prefer Twitter to Facebook even though Facebook is much larger on a global scale.

Other interesting stats from the report:

• 63 firms are actively tweeting whilst just 33 have their own Facebook page
• Only 11 companies use their social media channels as a helpline or for customer service, whilst six use social media to raise brand awareness
• Banking, insurance and retail are the most active in social media, whilst manufacturing, mining and real estate are “practically invisible”
• Burberry is the most popular FTSE 100 company on Facebook with more than four million followers
• Only 14 companies have a link to their social media activities on their corporate website’s home page

The report suggests that the big FTSE 100 companies are still coming to grips with social media and learning to integrate social channels into their overall strategy. As fresh networks notes, these companies are still using social channels primarily for marketing and pr rather than for real customer engagement across the business.

The full report is worth reading, particularly for the various brand case studies, including Burberry, Next, Tesco, Barclays and more:

FTSE 100 Social Media Use …