Presented by:
Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth
Director, Center for Marketing Research
8th Annual SNCR Research Symposium
November 7, 2013, Thomson Reuters Boston Office
www.sncr.org
Inc. 500 Settles In, Fortune 500 Get
Excited: Blogging Embraced, FB Falls
The Inc.500 and
Social Media a
Methodology
Nationwide telephone survey using Inc. 500 lists
114 participated in 2011
170 participated in 2012
Both studies are statically valid
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Blogging Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Foursquare Youtube Pinterest Do Not UseAny
37%
74%
64%
73%
13%
45%
0% 9%
44%
67% 67%
81%
28% 30%
18% 8%
GROWTH IN SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS 2011-2012
2011
2012
Measures of Success
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Increase Decrease Remain the Same No Response/Unsure
71%
0%
25%
4%
44%
1%
41%
15%
WHAT ARE YOUR BUDGET PLANS FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA INVESTMENTS FOR THE UPCOMING YEAR?
2011-2012
2011
2012
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Yes No No Response/Unsure
34%
58%
8%
DO YOU HAVE ANY WAY TO FINANCIALLY DETERMINE THE RETURN ON INVESTMENTS
FOR YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA EFFORTS? 2012
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Yes No No Response/Unsure
68%
30%
1%
70%
28%
2%
68%
31%
1%
63%
35%
2%
DOES YOUR COMPANY TRACK ONLINE CONVERSATIONS ABOUT YOUR BRANDS, PRODUCTS OR INDUSTRY FROM
A MONITORING TOOL LIKE GOOGLE ALERTS OR A MONITORING SERVICE?
2009-2012
2009
2010
2011
2012
Highlights
• Marketing Departments are assuming responsibility for
Social Media function and planning
• Blogging jumps among the Inc. 500
• LinkedIn leads the way
• Fewer companies will increase investments in social media
• Monitoring the social media buzz falls off
• ROI linked to reducing costs for recruiting
The Fortune 500 and
Social Media a
Methodology
A company was counted as having a blog if they had a public
facing corporate blog from the primary corporation with recent
posts
All corporate homepages of the Fortune 500 list were examined
for links to, or mention of, corporate blogs.
If none were found, a search on the site was conducted using the
key word “blog.” If no blogs were located on the homepage or
through a site search, Google and Technorati were used.
Blogs in the Fortune 500 (2011 vs 2012 vs 2013)
One hundred seventy-one (34%) of the primary corporations
have a public facing corporate blog with a post in the past
year (23% in 2011, 28% in 2012).
Top 5 companies
Have Blogs:
Without A Blog at This Time:
16% 22% 23% 23% 28%
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Fortune 500 Corporations with
Public Facing Corporate Blogs
(2008 - 2013)
Blogs by Industry
Corporate Blogs by Industry
Number of
Companies
w/blogs Percent
Telecommunications 9/17 53%
Specialty Retailers 10/22 46%
Food Consumer Products 5/15 33%
Utilities: Gas and Electric 6/23 26%
Aerospace and Defense 3/12 25%
Commercial Banks 4/18 22%
Chemicals 3/15 20%
Insurance: Property and Casualty (Stock) 2/10 20%
Motor Vehicles and Parts 2/15 13%
Blog Engagement
(2013)
79% of the Fortune 500 blogs in 2013 take and
respond to comments, offer RSS feeds and
email subscriptions.
Highlights
• Increase in adoption of blogging by 6%, their use of Twitter by 4%
and their use of Facebook pages by 4%
• Sixty-nine percent of the 2013 F500 use YouTube, up 7% from last
year.
• Prefer Twitter to Facebook and are experimenting with new tools such as Google+, Foursquare and Instagram. (Only Google+ shows evidence of a significant number of open, but inactive, accounts).
45%
22%
50%
23%
37%
23%
44%
28%
37%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Inc. 500 Fortune 500
Trends in Blogging
Inc. 500 vs Fortune 500
(2009 - 2013) 2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
67% 67%
30%
44%
18%
28%
70%
77%
69%
34%
9% 9%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Facebook Twitter YouTube Blogging Pinterest Foursquare
Social Media Usage
Inc. 500 vs Fortune 500
(2012/2013)
Inc. 500
(2012)
Fortune 500
(2013)
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