July 6, 2009
Over the past year social media gurus have been banging the Twitter drum very loudly, and everybody in the PR and marketing industry must by now be at least dimly aware that they need to pay attention to the service. But apart from the small handful of high profile case studies (Dell, Starbucks, etc.) which get trotted out in almost every discussion on the subject, there seems to be very little hard data on how businesses are really using Twitter in their comms activities.
A few months ago we decided that wasn’t good enough. We know that there are compelling benefits to be gained from reaching out to audiences on Twitter, but if we want to convince other people of that, we need to show them how brands in their own market sectors are already doing it.
So, we got to work producing mini-case studies of 140 leading UK and international brands across a range of industry sectors, and put them all in one monster report. We analysed qualitative information, such as the subject matter and writing style of each brand, along with quantitative data such as frequency of updates and how often Twitter users ‘re-tweet’ the brand’s messages to their own friends.
As well as providing insight into individual companies’ use of Twitter, compiling all of this data also allowed us to build a much broader picture of how brands in general are using the service. It’s a very comprehensive and in-depth report on the current status of Twitter usage amongst high-profile brands, and if you’d like to get hold of your free copy all you have to do is head over to the download page on our website: The Truth about Twitter
In case you’re wondering whether your company is included, here’s the complete list of brands featured in the report, in alphabetical order:
Action Aid
All Saints
Amnesty UK
Andrex
Argos
Asda
Asos
BBC
Bigmouth Media
BMI Baby
BMW
British Airways
British Red Cross
BT
Burger King
Butlins
Cancer Research UK
Canon
Cardiff University
Cardiff University International Office
Carphone Warehouse
Centre for Policy Studies Think Tank
Channel 4
Cheap Flights
Christian Aid
CNN
Communities Uk
Compare The Meerkat
Cruise Thomas Cook
Debenhams
Dell
DIUS
Domino’s
Domino’s
Easy Jet
eBay
E-Consultancy
Electrolux
Eon
Expedia
FairtradeUK
Financial Times
Fly Cheapo
Ford
Ford
Forrester
Friends of the Earth
GAME
GE
GE
GE
Get My Finance Ltd
Google
GreenPeace
GreenPeace UK
Greggs
Guardian
H&M
HM Treasury
Honda UK
Huggies
Hyatt Concierge
IAB
IBM
IBM
Ikea
Ikea
ING
Innocent
Institute for Public Policy Research
Intel
ITV
Kodak
KPMG
Last Minute.com
Leeds Metropolitan University
Leeds University
LGBlogUK
Liberal Democrats
Linked In
London University News
London university’s External system
Loughborough Students Union
Love Film
Macdonald Hotels
Macmillan Cancer
Marketing
Marmite
Marriott
Mercedes
Metro
More Eco
MTV
National Express
National Trust
Nestle
Nokia
Norton Safe Web Software
O2
O2
Oxfam
PC World
Pizza Hut
Planet Green
RSPCA
SAP
SBAC
Shell
Siemens energy
Sky
Sony
Sri Lankan Airways
Starbucks
Teeside University
Tesco’s
The Foreign Office
Thomson Reuters
Times Higher Education
Times Online
T-Mobile
TomTom
Topshop
Toshiba
Toyota Europe
Travel Lodge Ireland
UK Parliament
Unicef
Vauxhall
Virgin
Visit Britain
Vodafone
Walkers
Warwick Careers
Wateraid
Waterstone’s
Weightwatchers
Whole Foods
WWF
Yahoo!
York Alumni