Half of the ASX100 use social media – but only a third are choosing the social media platform that Australians favour, Facebook.

53% of ASX100 companies are now using Twitter, 27% are using Facebook and less than a quarter of the top 100 Australian companies are using both.

According to a study by Web Profits, 11.5 million Australians are currently active on Facebook but only an estimated 2.2 million are currently active on Twitter.

However, the results suggest that large Australian companies are choosing to use less populated Twitter to ‘hide’ their social output, forgoing the opportunity to connect with customers and stakeholders in fear of having their mistakes seen online.

Source: Web Profits

“The results indicate that companies that feel pressured by their boards to embrace social media are choosing Twitter because it feels safer,” says Paul Sprokkreeff, MD of Web Profits.

“Comments on Twitter fly by so quickly, while a faux pas on Facebook often sticks there for everyone to see. Rather than formulate a strategy to turn this to their advantage, many companies are confining their engagement strategy to tweeting the odd media release or pre-spun factoid to a handful of followers.”

Source: Web Profits

It appears that the big four banks are cottoning on to the higher engagement levels of Facebook.

The Commonwealth Bank leads the pack, coming in at number one of the ASX100 for effective social media deployment, with NAB, Westpac and ANZ coming in at 6th, 7th and 8th place.

“That the big four banks have caught on indicates that even traditionally risk-shy companies know that the blend of information and customer service that social media can achieve is a powerful marketing and loyalty tool,” Sprokkreeff says.

“I think we’ll see social media grow significantly in importance to exceed that of the call centre in the next five years.”