Social networks; Large Asian corporations increase exposure but engagement remains low: New study

Asian companies listed in the Fortune Global 100 show the greatest year-on-year increase in official Facebook presence, though many are still reluctant to engage stakeholders through this platform, according to the Burson-Marsteller Global Social Media Check-up 2011.
The study examines the Fortune Global 100’s use of popular social networking platforms such as: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, corporate blogs and local and language-specific social media, according to a statement released in Singapore and issued locally by the agency’s Sri Lanka unit, Bates.
While a global increase of 18% in Facebook engagement was driven by a 25% increase in Asian companies on the list building a presence on the social network, Asian companies continue to miss opportunities for engagement with online stakeholders. While Asian corporate Facebook pages saw a 406% increase in stakeholder ‘Likes’ and 60% of Asian companies in the study allow fan posts to their pages, only 28% of these pages routinely responded to fan posts.
“While the increase in social media adoption in Asia is in part due to greater investment in this area for local marketing, much of the growth is driven by established Asian multinationals using social media to reach new audiences abroad,” said Bob Pickard, president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific. “We expect to see this trend continue as other Asian companies become more comfortable with the interactive nature of social networks and take the opportunity engage their stakeholders directly on these platforms.”

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On Facebook, 74 % of companies allow users who ‘like’ their page to post on their page ‘walls’, and more than one-half (57 %) of companies are responding to these posts and comments. The US companies lead the way on Facebook interaction with 89 % of companies allowing posts and 72 % of companies responding back.
In terms of growth of adoption, 67 % of Asian companies in the Fortune Global 100 are now using at least one social media platform, up from 50 % 12 months earlier, while the number of US and European companies using social media remained virtually flat at 89 and 84 %, respectively.
“Global companies are now demonstrating greater comfort with the interactive nature of social networks and are more willing to engage their stakeholders directly on these platforms,” said Burson-Marsteller Worldwide CEO Mark Penn.
The Sunday Times