The Fortune 500 And Social Media: A Longitudinal Study Of Blogging And Twitter Usage By America’s Largest Companies - Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.d., Eric Mattson Ceo, Financial Insite Page 6
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17companies, four of the top five corporations (Wal-Mart, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and
General Electric) consistently post on their Twitter accounts. The number one ranked
company, Exxon Mobil, does not have a Twitter account at this time.
Four of the companies (Boeing, Footlocker, FPL Group and Winn-Dixie Stores) had their
Tweets protected and required a request to view their profile. Because we could not verify
posts within the last 30 days, they were not included in our tally. Nine of the companies
(Baker Hughes, CIT Group, Computer Sciences, Delta Air Lines, Ecolab, Manitowoc,
Mattel, MeadWestvaco and Union Pacific) with corporate Twitter accounts had not posted
within the past 30 days, so they were excluded from our analysis since they did not meet
our definition. The entire list of 2009 Fortune 500 companies (173) that met our criteria
and their Twitter accounts are listed in Appendix A.
6A. Twitter Accounts by Industry
The 173 companies with Twitter accounts come from a cross section of industries. A
partial list is presented below showing those industries with the greatest presence on
Twitter.
Industry
Number of 2009
F500 Companies
with a Twitter
Account
Insurance
13
Food Production, Services, Drug Stores and Consumer Products
11
Computer Software, Peripherals, Office Equipment
10
Specialty Retail
10
Telecommunications
10
Utilities
10
Tweeting differed by industry type with insurance having the most Twitter accounts (13).
Companies in this category include Allstate, TIAA-CREF, Liberty Mutual Insurance
Group and Northwestern Mutual. The food-related industry represented by companies
like Kroger, Walgreen and McDonald's had 11 of the Twitter accounts studied.
Many industries had 10 companies with a Twitter account. These, with some company
examples, include: computer software, peripherals and office equipment (Hewlett-
Packard, Microsoft), specialty retail (Home Depot, Lowe's), telecommunications (AT&T,
Verizon Communications) and utilities (Dominion Resources, Duke Energy).
6B. Twitter Accounts by Rank
Rank appears to influence the use of Twitter by the 2009 Fortune 500. Of the top 100
companies on the list, 47 have a Twitter account. Of the group listed 101-200, 35 have a
Twitter account. Those listed 201-300 have 30, 301-400 have 28 and 401-500 have 33
Twitter accounts. Of the 173 twitter accounts that fit the definition for this study, 47% of
them belong to Fortune 500 companies listed in the top 200 while 35% come from those
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Parent category: Business