Social Media Use Growing Among Fortune 500 List With 77% Tweeting & 70% On Facebook

An annual report from University of Massachusetts Dartmouth evaluating the social media activity of Fortune Magazine’s Fortune 500 list found that 34 percent of this year’s Fortune 500 companies are now actively blogging, 77 percent maintain active Twitter accounts, 70 percent have Facebook pages and 69 percent have YouTube accounts.

This year marks the largest increase in the number of Fortune 500 companies currently blogging since 2008. According to previous reports, only 16 percent of Fortune 500 companies were blogging five years ago. Now, 171 companies on the Fortune 500 list publish a corporate blog, with 79 percent of the corporate blogs showing fresh content, taking comments and offering RSS feeds and subscriptions.

At 47 percent, nearly half of the Fortune 500 company blogs belong to the businesses that rank in the top 200. Two of the top five Fortune 500 companies – Walmart and Exxon – are among the corporations with blogs.

With 77 percent on Twitter and 70 percent on Facebook, the number of Fortune 500 corporate Twitter and Facebook accounts both increased four percent since last year. Eight of the top ten Fortune 500 companies maintain a Twitter presence and nine have active Facebook pages and YouTube accounts.

Interestingly enough, the Fortune 500 company leading with the most Twitter followers and Facebook fans is new to the Fortune 500 list. Debuting at 482 this year, Facebook has over 8.5 million Twitter followers and more than 92 million Facebook Fans.

While Twitter, Facebook and YouTube still garner the most activity from the Fortune 500 set, many Fortune 500 companies are active on Pinterest, Google+, Instagram and Foursquare as well. The study revealed that 35 percent of Fortune 500 companies had active Google+ accounts, while 19 percent had non-active Google+ accounts. Forty-four of the Fortune 500 companies are on Instagram, including Ford, AT&T, Avon and Home Depot. Likewise, there are also 44 Fortune 500 companies on Foursquare, including Walmart, Target, Walgreens and Lowe’s.

Fortune 500 Pinterest accounts grew from only 11 corporate accounts in 2012, up to 45 Fortune 500 companies using the image-focused social media network this year.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Amy Gesenhues

Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.