Fortune 500 Companies Become More Social

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It's been no secret that some Fortune 500 companies are a little behind the times when it comes to their social media endeavors. Not to say that there aren't some fantastic cutting edge social media strategist with stellar results for Fortune 500 companies, but it's definitely not that common.

A new study has looked at how Fortune 500 companies are using (or not using) social media, such as Twitter and Facebook, as part of their overall marketing and customer service plan.

Which types of Fortune 500 companies are actively using social media the most?

Overall:

• 77 percent have active Twitter accounts (up from 73 percent in 2012); Facebook has the most followers.
• 70 percent are on Facebook (up from 66 percent); Facebook has the most fans.
• 69 percent have a YouTube channel (up from 62 percent).
• 35 percent have Google+ pages.
• 9 percent are using Pinterest (up from 2 percent), Instagram, and Foursquare.

When looking at Facebook, specialty retailers are not surprisingly at the top of the list with 96 percent. Retailers definitely realize the importance of getting their products and brand in front of customers, especially on a platform where users can easily share with others.

But next on the list? Telecommunications ranked second with 88 percent having a presence on Facebook. This really isn't shocking when you consider that many people take to social media, particularly Facebook, to complain about their cell phone or Internet company.

It makes a lot of sense for these companies to be able to interact with those disgruntled customers and try to make them happy if possible – and so that friends of disgruntled customers can also see that the company is attempting to fix the issue. Many of these telecommunications companies have a great rep when it comes to dealing with social media and their interactions on it, even if they don't necessarily have a great overall rep, but are making plenty of inroads with a large and active social media presence.

When you look at Twitter, you see many of the same trends, although some are more active on Twitter than on Facebook. For example, commercial banks have the largest Fortune 500 company presence, with 94 percent of banks being on Twitter, compared to only 70 percent of banks being on Facebook. In second is food and consumer products with 93 percent, while specialty retailers come in at 91 percent.

Also worth noting is the fact that even in 2013 only 34 percent of Fortune 500 companies have corporate blogs. This is barely over double the amount of corporate blogs in 2008, were 16 percent had blogs. That is surprisingly slow growth for what is really the easiest medium to control when it comes to putting content out in front of customers.

You can view the infographic below or the full study here.

This article was originally published on Search Engine Watch.