TechCentralTechCentral
    Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube
    TechCentral TechCentral
    NEWSLETTER
    • News

      It’s official: stage-6 load shedding is here

      28 June 2022

      E.tv in stunning victory over minister in digital TV fight

      28 June 2022

      Stage-6 load shedding highly likely later today

      28 June 2022

      Prosus sale plan sends Chinese tech stocks tumbling

      28 June 2022

      Takealot is ready for the Amazon onslaught: Bob van Dijk

      27 June 2022
    • World

      Ether holds its breath for the Merge

      28 June 2022

      Google Cloud customers will learn their Gmail carbon footprint

      28 June 2022

      The lights are going out for crypto’s laser-eyed grifters

      28 June 2022

      Crypto retakes $1-trillion

      27 June 2022

      Tencent slides on Prosus sale plan

      27 June 2022
    • In-depth

      The great crypto crash: the fallout, and what happens next

      22 June 2022

      Goodbye, Internet Explorer – you really won’t be missed

      19 June 2022

      Oracle’s database dominance threatened by rise of cloud-first rivals

      13 June 2022

      Everything Apple announced at WWDC – in less than 500 words

      7 June 2022

      Sheryl Sandberg’s ad empire leaves a complicated legacy

      2 June 2022
    • Podcasts

      How your organisation can triage its information security risk

      22 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E06 – ‘Apple Silicon’

      15 June 2022

      The youth might just save us

      15 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E05 – ‘Nvidia: The Green Goblin’

      8 June 2022

      Everything PC S01E04 – ‘The story of Intel – part 2’

      1 June 2022
    • Opinion

      Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

      21 June 2022

      Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

      13 June 2022

      A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

      19 May 2022

      From spectrum to roads, why fixing SA’s problems is an uphill battle

      19 April 2022

      How AI is being deployed in the fight against cybercriminals

      8 April 2022
    • Company Hubs
      • 1-grid
      • Altron Document Solutions
      • Amplitude
      • Atvance Intellect
      • Axiz
      • BOATech
      • CallMiner
      • Digital Generation
      • E4
      • ESET
      • Euphoria Telecom
      • IBM
      • Kyocera Document Solutions
      • Microsoft
      • Nutanix
      • One Trust
      • Pinnacle
      • Skybox Security
      • SkyWire
      • Tarsus on Demand
      • Videri Digital
      • Zendesk
    • Sections
      • Banking
      • Broadcasting and Media
      • Cloud computing
      • Consumer electronics
      • Cryptocurrencies
      • Education and skills
      • Energy
      • Fintech
      • Information security
      • Internet and connectivity
      • Internet of Things
      • Investment
      • IT services
      • Motoring and transport
      • Public sector
      • Science
      • Social media
      • Talent and leadership
      • Telecoms
    • Advertise
    TechCentralTechCentral
    Home»News»SA’s biggest firms failing at social media

    SA’s biggest firms failing at social media

    News By Editor11 November 2015
    Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email

    social-media-640

    JSE-listed companies are not making sufficient use of Twitter as a platform to help people, including those in the financial community, get a better understanding of their businesses.

    That’s the finding of new research by FTI Consulting, which evaluates how effectively the JSE’s top 40 companies by market capitalisation use social media at the time of their financial results.

    “Concerns about governance and about a lack of control of message dissemination are the main reasons for this reticence,” the researchers found.

    Only 35% of the top 40 listed companies use Twitter as a financial communication tool, and this lags behind international benchmarks. In general, they aren’t using social media as an effective communication tool, FTI Consulting said.

    “This was the second time that we researched the adoption of social media as a corporate communications tool. We found that while the number of companies with a Twitter handle has remained fairly static at 60% (compared to 59% in 2014), there has been an increase in the number tweeting their results information,” it said.

    “In 2014, only 26% of the companies used Twitter as a mechanism to communicate their financial results. This figure has grown to 35% in 2015.”

    Most don’t interact with stakeholders online, respond to questions, share coverage or retweet commentary.

    “Our research suggests that most JSE Top 40 companies aren’t exploiting social media fully. They tend to use it to broadcast planned messages rather than to involve their audience in a genuine dialogue.”

    In the UK, by contrast, FTI Consulting research shows that just 38% of FTSE 100 companies do not share their latest full or half year financial results on social media. This figure is an improvement on six and 12 months ago, when 41% and 48% of companies respectively did not share their results on Twitter.

    “This failure to use Twitter as well as LinkedIn, YouTube and Facebook more effectively by South African companies is particularly surprising given that South Africa as a whole has embraced social media,” the company said.

    The researchers found that larger companies are more likely to use Twitter than smaller ones.

    Companies often expressed concerns that they would not be able to put across a comprehensive corporate message in just 140 characters, FTI Consulting said.

    “Our survey found that the majority of those companies with a Twitter handle use the social media platform merely as a distribution network, tweeting links to a static, text-heavy press release on their websites. These companies are failing to appreciate that Twitter is not a medium for distributing press releases but a platform to engage in discussion.”

    Concerns about governance and regulatory requirements are another factor holding back companies from using Twitter and other social media networks.

    “The JSE has made it clear that, as is the case with press releases and other media, releasing and commenting on results via Twitter is not a problem as long as the results have been posted on the stock exchange news service first.”  — © 2015 NewsCentral Media

    Facebook FTI Consulting LinkedIn Twitter YouTube
    Share. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn WhatsApp Telegram Email
    Previous ArticleUS, UK in full-frontal assault on privacy
    Next Article Charges laid against telecoms DG

    Related Posts

    It’s official: stage-6 load shedding is here

    28 June 2022

    E.tv in stunning victory over minister in digital TV fight

    28 June 2022

    Stage-6 load shedding highly likely later today

    28 June 2022
    Add A Comment

    Comments are closed.

    Promoted

    Hands off our satellite spectrum!

    27 June 2022

    Watch | Telviva One: adapting to the requirements of business

    24 June 2022

    Huawei P50 now available for pre-order in South Africa

    23 June 2022
    Opinion

    Has South Africa’s advertising industry lost its way?

    21 June 2022

    Rob Lith: What Icasa’s spectrum auction means for SA companies

    13 June 2022

    A proposed solution to crypto’s stablecoin problem

    19 May 2022

    Subscribe to Updates

    Get the best South African technology news and analysis delivered to your e-mail inbox every morning.

    © 2009 - 2022 NewsCentral Media

    Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.