What the Fortune Global 100 are (and aren’t) doing on social media

A recent study by global public relations and communications firm Burson-Marsteller looks in depth at what the Fortune Global 100 companies are currently doing on social media.

It follows LeadingCompany’s report last month that revealed just over 70% (352) of Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence on any social media networks, a report that looks specifically at the social media efforts of Fortune 500 companies found.

Some of the more interesting insights from the new study include:

* There is a massive amount of communication about major companies, with each company mentioned in an average of more than 55,000 tweets and 19,000 blog posts each month.

* Corporate participation in social media is high though not yet pervasive, with 82% of the companies on Twitter (compared with 65% in 2010), 74% on Facebook (up from 54%), and 79% on YouTube (up from 50%).

* The average Fortune 100 company has almost 15,000 followers on its Twitter account – almost 3 times the figure a year earlier – and more than 150,000 likes on Facebook.

* There has been a rapid shift to multiple social media accounts, with the average company having more than 10 Twitter accounts and 10 Facebook pages, across segments, geographies, and purposes.

* A quarter of the companies have Pinterest accounts, showing they are on top of trends.

Overall, the data points to a high and increasing level of engagement with social media by large corporations. However, by 2012 it is still rather surprising that there are still major companies that are not yet engaged with social media.

Undoubtedly, underneath the key data, there are many companies engaging on social media, but with little depth or enthusiasm.

How well companies engage in social media is likely to be an increasingly accurate indicator of their ability to deal with accelerating change in the business environment.

See a fascinating slideshow of the key facts, such as the 10 global companies with the most online mentions, here.