Fortune Global 100 Companies' followers more influential than average twitter users

Burson-Marsteller analysed data in the seven industries of the Fortune Global 100 including automobile, energy, financial, healthcare, retail, technology and telecommunication and found technology and automobile industries have most socially connected twitter followers, while the healthcare and retail industry lag.

The research, produced by Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations firm, and StatSocial, a leading social media analytics platform and data provider formerly known as PeekAnalytics, found that those who follow the world's large companies have, on average, 735 connections across all social media platforms compared to just 300 average connections for those who do not.

This study follows Burson-Marsteller's Twiplomacy research, which analyses the influence and reach of world leaders on Twitter.

Additional data

• Male: 1.3 times more likely to be male than the average Twitter user
• Older: 1.3 times more likely to be between 46 and 55; and 1.4 times more likely to be between the ages of 36 and 45
• Global: 54% of the followers of large global companies are from the US but followers of large global companies are 1.3 times more likely to be from the UK and 6.4 times more likely to be from Mexico than the followers of the average Twitter account

Followers of large global companies on Twitter are also more likely to be interested in automobiles (1.2 times), business (1.2 times), technology (1.2 times) and politics (1.09 times) compared with average Twitter users.

In addition to increased social connections, followers of the Global Fortune 100 are 3274 times more influential than average Twitter followers are. Follower influence, defined as how well connected the followers are across 60 social sites, varies by industry. According to the study, companies in the technology and automotive sectors have the most socially connected and influential followers.

Their followers are approximately 1300 times more influential than the average Twitter user. Conversely, followers of leading global healthcare and retail companies are just 43 and 329 times more influential than the average Twitter user.

Social connectivity, influence of followers by sector

"Having a presence on Twitter enables corporations to reach a broad online audience," said Michael Bassik, Burson-Marsteller's US digital practice chair. "To attract more influential followers, marketers of all sizes can benefit from following the example of large global technology and automobile companies by focusing on compelling storytelling, responsive engagement and paid media amplification."

"It is very much worth the effort for a brand to cultivate its social audience," added Michael Hussey, StatSocial CEO. "For marketing purposes alone it can be a unique goldmine of data - essentially serving as a panel of consumers whose work, schooling, income, likes and dislikes across other brands, activities, interests and TV shows can now be known, and even compared to those of other social audiences - a competitor's, for example. We've moved beyond a world where Twitter and Facebook are just tools for measuring engagement and performing customer service and into a world where your social audience is your real-time market research panel."