â–¶ Event Placement a Non-Event: While senior executive participation at business leadership conferences has held steady or grown since the start of the global economic crisis, less than half (44%) of PR executives surveyed globally by Weber Shandwick have a formal process for identifying optimal placements of executives at these events. Other study findings include:
• CEOs consider speaking engagements prime channels for communicating thought leadership platforms (61%), attracting new business and cultivating customer relationships (58%) and defining or redefining brands (52%).
• Communications professionals and executive speechwriters say their CEOs are most interested in speaking at: top-tier business media events (44%), public policy conferences (41%) and business school gatherings (31%).
• The one event that generates the most positive word-of-mouth in the global business community: the World Economic Forum in Davos, identified by 44% of communications professionals as the most buzz-worthy event.
Source: Weber Shandwick
â–¶ Good News on Corporate Web Sites: A study of frequent social media users finds that nearly 75% either sometimes or very often or all the time use corporate Web sites to engage in, follow or share information or news. The survey, by TEKGROUP and Western Kentucky University, which used social media tools to solicit survey participation, polled 545 people from April 15-May 30 of this year. Other findings include:
• Almost 75% of survey respondents indicated they frequently (32%) or sometimes (42%) visit a corporate Web site after learning of a news story through social media channels, with roughly half of all respondents saying they sometimes (32%) or frequently (18%) use social media tools to fact-check corporate Web sites and press releases.
• For those actively participating in social media new-gathering and distribution, it seems social media is viewed about the same (41%) as traditional news sources for reliability and accuracy, with only 10% of respondents labeling social media as much less reliable or accurate.
• The most popular social media tools for tracking news and information is Twitter (60%), followed closely by Facebook (53%), with respondents indicating they use these tools all the time. Surprisingly, blogs (24%) and sharing sites, such as Flickr and YouTube, (18%) are not used regularly for social news tasks.
Source: TEKGROUP International Inc.
Twitter Watch: Nonprofits’ Twitter Presence |
||||
Nonprofit Organization |
Primary Account |
Total Number of Accounts |
Total Number of followers* |
|
1 | YMCA of the USA | http://twitter.com/YMCA_usa | 177 | 407 |
2 | The Salvation Army | http://twitter.com/SALVATIONARMY | 104 | 3,878 |
3 | United Way of America | http://twitter.com/unitedway | 17 | 101 |
4 | American Red Cross | http://twitter.com/redcross | 42 | 142,977 |
5 | Goodwill Industries | http://twitter.com/goodwillintl | 66 | 3,233 |
6 | Catholic Charities USA | http://twitter.com/CCharitiesUSA | 1 | 526 |
7 | Habitat for Humanity | http://twitter.com/Habitat_org | 56 | 7,252 |
8 | American Cancer Society | http://twitter.com/americancancer | 1 | 54,932 |
9 | The Arc of the United States | http://twitter.com/TheArcUS | 37 | 1,250 |
10 | Boys & Girls Clubs of America | http://twitter.com/bgca_clubs | 8 | 2,367 |
11 | Easter Seals | http://twitter.com/Easter_Seals | 23 | 1,489 |
12 | American Heart Association | http://twitter.com/foundersheart | 1 | 3,653 |
13 | Boy Scouts of America | http://twitter.com/boyscouts | 4 | 6,500 |
14 | Planned Parenthood Federation of America | http://twitter.com/PPACT | 31 | 3,816 |
15 | Feed the Children | http://twitter.com/feedthechildren | 1 | 3,476 |
16 | Food for the Hungry | http://twitter.com/food4thehungry | 1 | 2,749 |
17 | Girl Scouts of the USA | http://twitter.com/girlscouts | 4 | 1,971 |
18 | St. Jude Children's Research Hospital | http://twitter.com/stjude | 3 | 7,639 |
19 | The Nature Conservancy | http://twitter.com/nature_org/ | 1 | 26,275 |
20 | World Vision | http://twitter.com/worldvision | 5 | 17,215 |
21 | Shriners Hospitals for Children | http://twitter.com/shriners | 14 | 693 |
22 | Volunteers of America Domestic Social Needs | http://twitter.com/vol_of_america | 1 | 529 |
23 | Feeding America (America's Second Harvest) | http://twitter.com/feedingamerica | 1 | 9,308 |
24 | AmeriCares | http://twitter.com/americares | 1 | 5,984 |
25 | City of Hope | http://twitter.com/cityofhope | 2 | 4,330 |
26 | United States Fund for UNICEF | http://twitter.com/unicefusa | 78 | 16,444 |
27 | Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation | http://twitter.com/komenforthecure | 68 | 13,189 |
28 | Save the Children Federation | http://twitter.com/savethechildren | 6 | 65,377 |
29 | CARE USA | http://twitter.com/careusa | 2 | 33 |
30 | Big Brothers Big Sisters of America | http://twitter.com/BBBSA | 76 | 2,756 |
31 | Gifts in Kind International | http://twitter.com/giftsinkind | 1 | 726 |
32 | Compassion International | http://twitter.com/COMPASSION | 5 | 23,836 |
33 | March of Dimes Foundation | http://twitter.com/marchofdimes | 2 | 8,157 |
34 | The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society | http://twitter.com/llsusa | 14 | 1,814 |
35 | Make-A-Wish Foundation of America | http://twitter.com/MAKEAWISH | 3 | 18,290 |
36 | Academy for Educational Development | http://twitter.com/aedorg | 1 | 217 |
37 | American Diabetes Association | http://twitter.com/amdiabetesassn | 1 | 5,825 |
38 | MAP International | http://twitter.com/mapintl | 1 | 453 |
39 | World Wildlife Fund | http://twitter.com/WWF | 66 | 92,339 |
40 | Cystic Fibrosis Foundation | http://twitter.com/CF_Foundation | 1 | 2,082 |
41 | Alzheimer's and Related Disorders Assoc. | http://twitter.com/alzassociation | 12 | 1,808 |
42 | National Multiple Sclerosis Society | Only Local Affiliates | 19 | n/a |
43 | Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation | http://twitter.com/jdrf | 58 | 738 |
44 | Wildlife Conservation Society | No Account | n/a | n/a |
45 | International Rescue Committee | http://twitter.com/theirc | 1 | 4,640 |
46 | Muscular Dystrophy Association | http://twitter.com/mdanews | 18 | 3,770 |
47 | The Trust for Public Land | http://twitter.com/TPL_org | 1 | 728 |
48 | Marine Toys for Tots Foundation | No Account | n/a | n/a |
49 | The Rotary Foundation of Rotary International | http://twitter.com/rotary | 146 | 33,215 |
50 | The Conservation Fund | No Account | n/a | n/a |
An informal study of Twitter activities of top nonprofit organizations (ranked by Cone according to estimated brand value) finds that many of them rely on regional or local branches for Twitter outreach. (Note: Followers as of 6/16/10; *followers tallied from primary accounts.) | ||||
Source: Cone Nonprofit Power Brand 100/PR News |