â–¶ Policy Makers Get More Social: The rise in social media use is shaping and influencing policy worldwide, according to a new study from Edelman.
| Data Point: The Top Corporate Citizens And Their Presence on Facebook | |||||
| CSR Rank | Company | Corporate Page Likes | Notable Product Page/Likes | Total People that "Like" | % Increase from 10/17/11 |
| 1 | Publix Super Markets Inc. | 1,140 | N/A | 1,140 | 4.3% |
| 2 | 4,646,193 | Google Chrome/7,461,275 | 12,107,468 | 6.8% | |
| 3 | UPS | 52,653 | N/A | 52,653 | 50.3% |
| 4 | Kellogg’s | 257,256 | Pop-Tarts/3,473,759 | 3,731,015 | 1.4% |
| 5 | Amazon.com | 2,065,391 | Amazon.com Movies & TV/117,059 | 2,182,450 | 26.3% |
| 6 | Berkshire Hathaway | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| 7 | FedEx | 260,900 | I am FedEx/10,937 | 271,837 | 286.2% |
| 8 | Campbell Soup Company | N/A | Condensed Soup/48,451 | 48,451 | |
| 9 | Baxter International | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| 10 | 3M | 12,876 | Post-it/148,525 | 161,401 | 24.1% |
| 11 | Johnson & Johnson | 22,997 | Johnson’s Baby/417,177 | 440,174 | 10.9% |
| 12 | The Walt Disney Company | 29,640,843 | N/A | 29,640,843 | 2.6% |
| 13 | Coca-Cola Bottlers | 36,307,827 | Coca-Cola Zero/481,540 | 36,789,367 | 5.0% |
| 14 | Hershey Company | 2,906,970 | Kisses/635,950 | 3,542,920 | 12.3% |
| 15 | Texas Instruments | 57,104 | N/A | 57,104 | 1.9% |
| How much does the public “like” the best corporate citizens? In October 2011, the Reputation Institute and Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship unveiled its annual “Top 50 Companies with the Best Corporate Citizenship Reputations” list. PR News has been tracking the number of "likes" for the top 15, and it looks like it’s the Battle of the Package Delivery Companies. FedEx has scored the greatest increase in "likes," a nearly 300% gain from Oct. 17 to Dec. 8. Meanwhile, UPS has garnered a 50% increase in "likes." One thing is for sure—neither company is "mailing in" their Facebook effort. | |||||
| Source: Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship/PR News | |||||
Over half (53%) of members of Parliament in the U.K. and the U.S. Congress are now actively using Twitter to communicate with their constituents—a 15% increase over 2010. And 41% have also seen a growth in constituents’ use of Twitter to reach their lawmakers—almost a 600% lift from 2009.
Also underscoring the importance of the Web in educating policy makers and galvanizing them to support a policy issue, the survey finds that 60% of staffers go online to learn about an important policy issue for the first time. And 33% admit to changing their opinion based on what they have read online—a nearly 200% rise over 2009. Other key findings from the study include:
• 21% of respondents say poor messages are the primary reason that public affairs campaigns fail, while 23% indicate that fact-based, articulate messaging is key to winning over staffers.
• More than 80% of staffers reveal that letters from voters and community leaders, as well as individual constituent visits, are most effective in raising an issue’s prominence in their agenda.
• When asked to provide reasons why public affairs campaigns fail, 13% note limited grassroots support as an important campaign “fail factor,” thus underscoring the need for strategic grassroots advocacy for campaign success.
Source: Edelman
â–¶ Content Usage Up: Content marketing is now responsible for 26% of total business-to-business marketing spending, according to data from a study conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs. In addition, 60% of marketers plan to increase content budgets in 2012, with nine out of 10 organizations surveyed indicating they currently use content marketing. The most popular content tactics include articles (79%), social media (excluding blogs) (74%), blogs (65%) and e-newsletters (63%).
Other notable findings include:
• On average, B2B marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics to achieve their marketing goals.
• Every major social media channel is seeing increased adoption, often by 15-20%.
• 62% of B2B marketers used a mix of in-sourced and outsourced content in 2011. In comparison, 55% of marketers used outsourcing in some capacity in 2010.
Source: Content Marketing Institute/MarketingProfs