Increasing Penetration of Social Marketing

In 2010 PR firm Burson Marsteller studied the 100 largest companies in The Fortune  500 list and concluded that 79% of the companies use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or other corporate blogs to reach the customers and other stakeholders. The firm divided its finding by region (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America) and network.

In the research, Twitter turned out to be the most accepted platform that the companies use; two-thirds of the Fortune 100 has at least one Twitter account, and on an average have 4.2 Twitter accounts. Fifty-four percent has at least one Facebook fan page, 50% have at least one YouTube channel, and 33% have at least one corporate blog. Twenty percent of the companies use all four social media platforms.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook are generally West-oriented; Asia-Pacific companies don't use them as much, instead they choose corporate blogs. When they do use Twitter or Facebook, it's typically to connect consumers in Europe and North America.