
Fifty per cent of the companies additionally have a YouTube channel, and 33 per cent maintain corporate blogs.
On average, companies claimed to have 4.2 Twitter accounts, 2.1 Facebook fan pages, 1.6 YouTube channels and 4.2 corporate blogs.
In the region, Asia-Pacific companies are more likely to have blogs than engaged on other social media platforms. Fifty per cent of companies surveyed have a blog, while 40 per cent use Twitter and 40 per cent use Facebook.
“Asian companies are primarily focused on using local platforms such as Mixi in Japan, CyWorld in South Korea and Baidu Spaces and Renren in China to reach local audiences. Accordingly, their use of Facebook and Twitter is limited, and tends to be used for communicating with consumers in international markets,” said Bob Pickard, president and CEO of Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific.
Burson-Marsteller Asia-Pacific’s lead digital strategist, Charlie Pownall, noted that regional companies have been slower to integrate social media into their strategies, but are changing. “International firms are leading by example in their use of social media; Asian companies have proved more conservative, remaining concerned about resourcing, costs, measurement and the potential reputational risks,” he said. “As their domestic audiences continue to move online, and as the technology infrastructure improves across the region, Asian companies will come to use social media as the core business tool that it has become in the US and Europe.”
Globally, 82 per cent of the polled companies had tweeted in the last week, and 59 per cent had posted content on their Facebook fan page. In the prior month, 68 per cent had uploaded a video on YouTube and 36 per cent had posted an entry on a corporate blog.
Companies have used social media to interact with audiences as well as using the platforms to relay their own messages. Thirty-eight per cent of companies affirmed that they respond to audience tweets, and 32 have reposted user comments.