Levi’s, BBVA, Ebay Top Social Media Sustainability Index - 27 February, 2013
Levi Strauss, financial company BBVA, Ebay, Danone and General Electric top the SMI-Wizness Social Media Sustainability Index 2012, an annual review analyzing how major companies use social media to communicate sustainability and corporate social responsibility.
Telefonica, IBM, Marks & Spencer, FedEx and Microsoft rounded out the top 10 on the index. New entrant Ebay bumped Ford out of the no. 3 spot down to 17. Marks & Spencer is also new to the 2012 index.
The social media sustainability index is displayed in an interactive report created by SMI and Custom Communication.
Consumer goods companies dominated the top 100 in the 2012 list and, of those, retailers, food and beverage, household goods and automobile were well represented, according to key findings in the report. Technology, industrial goods, and financial services companies also were well represented, the report said.
Facebook was the social media channel most favored by corporate sustainability communicators, closely followed by Twitter, according to the report. Sustainability blogs and magazines trumped the video medium YouTube in 2012.
Pinterest was the new favorite of 15 companies, according to the report. Only 13 companies still retain Flickr sites, although most haven’t been updated in a long time. Cisco is the lone company trailblazing a Google+ presence, the report said.
The Social Media Sustainability Index begins by looking at how 400 global publicly listed companies are communicating their sustainability actions and initiatives using social media. The initial 400 are selected from a variety of sustainable company indices including the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, the FTSE4GOOD and Newsweek’s Green Brands Survey.
SMI evaluated which companies have social media channels, platforms or projects dedicated to communicating sustainability. This year, based on this criteria, 176 companies were identified as having dedicated social media sustainability efforts, an increase from 120 in 2011. Out of those 176 companies, the 100 top companies were selected.
In 2010, just 15 companies provided a version of their sustainability or corporate responsibility report that was sharable with social media communities. That more than doubled to 36 in 2011. In 2012, that figure increased again to 40.
Enablon launched the Wizness online collaborative platform in November 2011 to solve sustainability business challenges. Wizness, which had been under development for two years, offers discussion groups on topics ranging from supply chain management, energy, carbon and water usage to ethical business data and global rankings.
Source: http://www.environmentalleader.com
27 February, 2013