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How Are The Fortune 500 Embracing Facebook,Twitter & Blogging?

Written by - 11 Comments
Categories: Blogging, Facebook, Social Media, twitter

The Fortune 500 are the largest companies by revenue in the USA  and in 2010 Wal-Mart was the largest company on the list with revenues of $408 billion surpassing Exxon Mobil. These companies have a major impact not only on the USA but the world economy.

Over the last few years the University of Massachusetts (headed up by Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D) has reported on the the current trends in social media usage at the big companies. This year for the first time she looked at Facebook’s march into the big end of town.

So how many of them are using the major social media  tools including Facebook, Twitter and blogging?

Blogging

Blogging has not increased significantly at all since 2009 with only a 1% increase in the past 12 months.

Fortune 500 2010 Blogging Facts and Figures

The top blogging companies by industry sector are the technology industries of  computer software, software and office equipment followed by food production services and drug stores. If you compare the Fortune 500 with the Inc 500 Report ( The fastest growing companies in the USA) the fastest growing 500 have more than double the number of companies that blog at 50%. Fastest growing usually denotes nimble and flexible and  on the blogging aspect the Inc 500 is embarrassingly way ahead of the big guys.

Twitter

Twitter is a different story with 60% of the Fortune 500 have a Twitter account with a tweet in the last 30 days. This dramatically up from the 35% in 2009. The figures also reveal that nine of the top 10 companies have Twitter accounts. 50% of the Twitter accounts belong to the top 200 companies in the list while only 33% of the Twitter accounts come from those ranked in the bottom 200.

Fortune 500 Twitter Facts and Figures 2010

Specialty retail (such as Home Depot and Lowe’s) heads up the industry with the greatest presence on Twitter with 23 companies followed  by food production (eg McDonald’s), consumer products and insurance. Insurance increased its Twitter presence significantly from 13 to 20 companies. Twitter usage comparison between the Fortune 500 and the Inc 500 is very close at 60% to 59%.

Facebook

This is the first time Facebook has been included in the study due no doubt to the fact that Facebook in 2009 would not have been considered a very “corporate” activity or even appropriate. The numbers show that there are 56% of the Fortune 500 on Facebook compared to 71% on the Inc 500

Inc 500 social media usage facts and figures 2010 Facebook Twitter Blogging

Despite the considerable uptake of social media by the top US companies there are still organisations shunning it. The Fortune 500  culture in most cases is still conservative and closed but this is changing as the baby boomer executives are being replaced by the younger Gen Y upstarts who will bring changes to these staid organisations.


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  • Fwkeith3

    It’s interesting that LinkedIn does not appear as part of this study. Do you think it was left out intentionally, implying that LinkedIn is not an important part of the Fortune 500 social media fabric ?

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  • DLAspen

    It wasn’t a bad article until you stumbled badly at the end. As a baby boomer, I would maintain that the baby boomer generation is most certainly flexible and adaptive. After all, most of the changes that you credit to the “Gen Y upstarts” happened while we’re still around and are now actively using those tools. Organizational size is usually an indicator of how quickly that organization can or is willing to adapt. Witness the exodus at Google (most certainly not headed up by baby boomer executives) by those looking for an organization that is smaller and more nimble. Organizational adaptability and age are not the same thing.

    • http://jeffbullas.com Jeff Bullas

      Thanks David for the comment.. I actually am a baby boomer and I agree it’s not about age but attitude :)

      • http://www.cherrysolutiononline.com/ Cherry Rahtu

        Dear Jeff, agree. It is about attitude. I am also interested to know the statistics about linkedin.

  • http://profiles.google.com/seanclaire Sean Claire

    Jeff- Great article. Thanks for sharing. I will post to my LinkedIn Group(The Business of Social Media) and Twitter if you dont mind.
    I’ve been following the F500′s social media presence with great interest. We’re on the cusp of a SM revolution in business today, a year from now, it will be mainstream. I also predict that SM will find a way to profit from big business.
    Enjoyed the read, keep up your great work.
    Sean Claire

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  • Dipal

    @Fwkeith3 My question too! If LinkedIn was a part of the survey, can we have those stats as well?

  • http://www.redbricksmedia.com/ Media Companies In San Francis

    We all celebrate Web 2.0. This application refers to the second generation of the Web. It lets people with no specialized technical knowledge create their own web sites, self-publish, make and upload audio and video files, share photos and information and so on.  They are meant to be accessible to non-technical users.  That is their beauty. It’s also how social media pirates take advantage of their clients.  They exploit these applications, which anyone can learn how to use, and present them as a their skills and know-how package.  Worse, they apply them without first creating a social media marketing strategy.  That’s how your tea cozy content winds up in the Web equivalent of Dry Gulch Nowhere.

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  • http://www.accountancyhere.com/ amjad02

    If the whole thing is successful, you will get an approval from the agency’s website confirming that your registration went through without a hitch.