The Fortune 500 Blogs On
by Bill Ives
Nora Ganim Barnes and Eric Mattson recently released a study on the Fortune 500 and Blogging. The study found that eighty-one (16%) of the 2008 Fortune 500 have a public-facing corporate blog. What is more interesting is that the higher you are in the standings, the more likely you are to have a blog. The study reported that of the top 100 Fortune 500 companies, 38% (31 companies) have a corporate blog. Those listed 101-200, 25% (20 companies) have a corporate blog. The top 200 companies account for 63% of the Fortune 500 corporate blogs. In contrast, the bottom 200 (those listed 301-500) account for 26% of the Fortune 500 corporate blogs.
They are open to interactions as over 90% of the Fortune 500 blogs take comments, have RSS feeds and take subscriptions. The study says that, “these blogs are kept current with frequent posts on a range of topics. It appears that those companies that have made the decision to blog have utilized the tool well. There is frequent posting, on-going discussion and the ability to follow the conversation easily through RSS or subscriptions.” In addition, 23 (28%) linked to a corporate Twitter account.
However, the Fortune 500 lags behind other sectors as the 57% of charities, 41% of higher education institutions, and 39% of the smaller Inc. 500 have institutional blogs. But many seem to be trying. I would like to see a comparison on revenue and profits with blogging. Not that you can claim a cause and effect but you can see if the most successful companies are ones that also have the vision to operate blog.
