A comparative analysis between companies from Spain and the US
"Ibex 35 companies communicate with the wider public over social media more than Fortune 500 companies," explained Cristina Aced, an independent communications consultant and holder of a doctoral degree from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), having defended her doctoral thesis, "How Companies Are Seizing the Dialogic Opportunities Provided by Social Media to Communicate with their External Audiences".
Nevertheless, it is still more common to see a low level of communication between companies and their audiences, both in companies from the Ibex 35 and those from the Fortune 500, an annual list of the five hundred largest US companies open to public investment. In line with previous research efforts, the study concluded that companies are still failing to take full advantage of the potential for dialogue with social media.
Aced, who is a course instructor at the UOC, performed an integrated evaluation of the extent to which Ibex 35 companies and a selection of 20 companies from the Fortune 500 managed to connect with their external audiences via blogs, Facebook and Twitter over a 6-month period. Overall, a total of 2,243 tweets, 8,340 Facebook posts and 177 blog posts were analysed.
This qualitative research was carried out using a dialogic conceptual tool created based on Kent & Taylor's framework, with links to a grading system that classifies companies by their use of social media.
As a comparative analysis it enables the identification of good practices, so those working in public relations can make strategic use of social media. "For example, recommendations include adapting content to the characteristics of each social media channel and avoiding repetitions, encouraging the use of multimedia content such as videos and infographics, and spreading posts across the day so as to increase their range," she explained.
Cristina Aced's thesis, which she successfully completed in July, was supervised by Ferran Lalueza, a professor from the UOC's Faculty of Information and Communication Sciences