CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT LinkedIn vs Twitter – which works …€¦ · Sustainability Social Media...

1 CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT www.contextsustainability.com

Our first Sustainability Social Media Ranking published in 2018, looked at how companies use Twitter to communicate sustainability messages. Cisco topped that ranking, with regular posts, strong engagement and a large influencer following.

How are companies using LinkedIn for sustainability communications? And who is winning? We set out to answer these questions following the massive response to our first Twitter report. LinkedIn has come a long way since its origins, in 2003, as a network for professional connections and job searches. Following a NY Stock Exchange listing in 2011, and acquisition by Microsoft in 2016, LinkedIn has powered ahead to 575 million

members benefiting from an increasing menu of functions. LinkedIn is now the prime social media forum for business.

Now we turn our attention to LinkedIn – asking the same questions: how are companies using the platform for sustainability, and who is doing it best?

If you still think of LinkedIn as a contact list, you might be surprised at the level of content being posted, using features such as groups, followers, likes, comments and shares. You can also post long format articles, pictures and videos.

As well as ranking 100 companies’ use of LinkedIn, we compared the findings with those from our Twitter survey, to find out which platform is more effective for sustainability communications.

Sustainability Social Media Ranking II

CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT

LinkedIn vs Twitter – which works best?

https://www.contextsustainability.com


About this report

Sustainability Social Media Ranking II examines how 100 leading companies with strong sustainability reputations are using LinkedIn for sustainability communications and engagement. Our findings are based on a survey of posts spanning three months in the spring of 2019.

We selected 100 companies that are active in the sustainability conversation – 54 in the US, 41 in Europe, and 5 in Asia Pacific. We dug into their LinkedIn activities and data, to see what was working for them, and what was not.

This produced our overall and sector rankings for the most effective use of LinkedIn for sustainability communications.

Building on our earlier Twitter study, we now have the data to answer a key social media question for sustainability teams - should we invest in LinkedIn or Twitter?

How companies are using LinkedIn

On LinkedIn, as on Twitter, companies can potentially employ three types of accounts:

1. Main corporate account

2. Dedicated sustainability account

3. Personal account of a sustainability leader

Of the 100 companies in our survey, 99 made at least one sustainability post on their main corporate account in the three-month survey period. BP headed the table with 114 posts. The average posting frequency for the 99 active accounts was 20 posts over three months.

Only one company made no sustainability posts on its corporate account.

Forty seven sustainability leaders use their personal accounts for sustainability posts. By far the most prolific poster is Mike Barry (until recently of UK retailer Marks & Spencer). Mike made 390 posts over three months. The average posting frequency among the 47 active leaders was 17 posts over three months.

Only three of the 100 companies made posts on dedicated sustainability accounts. We therefore discounted these in our survey.

Our methodology – how we ranked companiesWe collected data from 100 companies, identifying their main corporate and sustainability leader LinkedIn accounts. Data was drawn from three months of posts in the spring of 2019.

Where LinkedIn did not show a full three months data, we extrapolated from the period available.

The success metrics we captured were:

Posting frequency – the number of posts with sustainability content (including shares of other people’s posts)

Engagement – the number of likes and comments received

Active listening – the number of times they liked or commented on other member posts (sustainability leader accounts only)

TYPES OF ACCOUNT

99

47

3

33

52

91

Main account

Dedicated account

Personal account



FINDINGSOverall Top 10BP heads our overall ranking with a regular posting rate of 1.3 posts a day on its main corporate account, achieving an average 640 engagements per post. BP came first without using a personal sustainability leader account.

Unilever is second with a posting rate of 0.78 per day and an impressive average 1,061 engagements per post. Like BP, Unilever did not use a personal sustainability leader account.

Third place Marks & Spencer adopted a very different strategy, relying mainly on their CSO Mike Barry’s personal account. Mike made an impressive 4.3 posts per day while their corporate account made only five sustainability posts in three months. Overall Marks & Spencer achieved an average 120 engagements per post.

All of the Top Ten are global multinationals comprising, two oil companies, two pharmaceutical companies, three FMCG companies, and one technology company.

OVERALL RANKING TOP 10 (positions out of 100) Company Main Corporate Account Sustainability Leader Account

1. BP

2. Unilever

3. Marks & Spencer

4. Procter & Gamble

5. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

6. Merck

7. Diageo

8. Google

9. Shell

10. Pfizer



FINDINGSPosting frequency Top 10BP is the most frequent corporate poster with 144 over three months, followed by Merck with 95 and Unilever with 71.

Mike Barry (Marks & Spencer) is by far the most prolific of the sustainability leaders, making a remarkable 390 posts in three months. Kate Brandt (Google) is the second most consistent poster with 42, and Bea Perez (Coca-Cola) is third with 35.

LinkedIn moves at a slower pace, and posts garner more engagement than on Twitter. This means, to be seen, you don’t necessarily need to post as frequently as you do on Twitter. We recommend making 2 to 3 posts per week, adapting content from your sustainability report and web-pages. When company news is slow, you can base posts on broader sustainability news and opinion.

Top 10 Corporate accounts

1 BP 114

2 Merck 95

3 Unilever 71

=4 Golden Agri-Resources 60

=4 Mars, Inc. 60

6 Diageo 59

7 Procter & Gamble 56

8 SAP 45

9 Colgate-Palmolive 43

10 Pfizer 42

Top 10 Sustainability Leader Accounts

1 Mike Barry formerly Marks & Spencer

390

2 Kate Brandt Google 42

3 Bea Perez The Coca-Cola Company

35

=4 Al Iannuzzi The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

31

=4 Christopher Stewart Olam International 31

=4 Tony Milikin AB InBev 31

=4 Pia Cook IKEA Group 31

8 Bertrand Swiderski Carrefour 23

9 Pablo Perversi Barry Callebaut 17

=10 Mary Engvall Cigna 13

=10 Virginie Helias Procter & Gamble 13

guidance

NUMBER OF POSTS (over 3 months)



FINDINGSEngagement Top 10Unilever received the most engagements (likes and comments) with over 75,000 on its corporate account, followed by BP and Shell. The average number of engagements for corporate accounts over three months was a little over 11,300.

Mike Barry again tops the sustainability leader accounts with over 45,000 engagements (as many as the 6th placed corporate account). Kate Brandt (Google) and Bea Perez (Coca-Cola) are second and third in engagement. The average engagements across the 47 sustainability leaders accounts was just under 1,600.

For company and personal accounts high quality content is key.

Don’t make overtly promotional posts.

Do, feature informative thought-provoking content.

Do include video, graphics and photographs.

Include widely used hashtags reflecting your content and use the ‘@’ symbol to credit organizations or individuals mentioned in your post.

As always, monitor your engagement to learn which posts resonate best with your audience.

NUMBER OF ENGAGEMENTS RECEIVED (over 3 months)

guidance

Top 10 Corporate accounts

1 Unilever 75,325

2 BP 72,913

3 Shell 52,486

4 Nike 51,178

5 Procter & Gamble 46,891

6 Google 43,788

7 The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

36,226

8 Diageo 35,377

9 adidas 34,403

10 Pfizer 32,364

Top 10 Sustainability Leader Accounts

1 Mike Barry formerly Marks & Spencer

45,474

2 Kate Brandt Google 8,502

3 Bea Perez The Coca-Cola Company

3,476

4 Tony Milikin AB InBev 2,724

5 Virginie Helias Procter & Gamble 2,690

6 Bertrand Swiderski Carrefour 2,041

7 Al Iannuzzi The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

1,789

8 Marie-Claire Daveu Kering 1,417

9 Jennifer Silberman formerly Target 871

10 Alexandra Palt L’Oréal 832



Our 100-company survey contains eight sectors plus a group of five young companies - ‘newcomers’. Our sector rankings combined the rankings for posting frequency and engagement for both types of account. The sector leaders are:

Apparel NikeBeverages DiageoFMCG UnileverFood Mars, Inc.Pharma and healthcare MerckRetail Marks & SpencerSoft commodities Olam InternationalTechnology and communications GoogleNewcomers WeWork

FINDINGSSector leaders

BEVERAGE

1 Diageo

2 The Coca-Cola Company

3 PepsiCo

4 AB InBev

5 Carlsberg

FMCG

1 Unilever

2 Procter & Gamble

3 The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

4 L’Oréal

5 Colgate-Palmolive

APPAREL

1 Nike

2 adidas

3 Kering

4 Levi’s

5 H&M Group

PHARMA AND HEALTHCARE

1 Merck

2 Pfizer

3 Bayer

4 Medtronic

5 Takeda

RETAIL TOP

1 Marks & Spencer

2 IKEA Group

3 Carrefour

4 Walmart

5 Tesco

FOOD

1 Mars, Inc.

2 Danone

3 General Mills

4 Kellogg Company

5 Tyson Foods

TECHNOLOGY AND COMMUNICATIONS

1 Google

2 SAP

3 Oracle

4 Intel

5 Adobe

SOFT COMMODITIES

1 Olam International

2 Cargill

3 Archer Daniels Midland

4 Golden Agri-Resources

5 Louis Dreyfus Company

NEWCOMERS

1 WeWork

2 Uber

3 Etsy

4 Tesla

5 Airbnb

The Top 5



1 BP2 Unilever3 Marks & Spencer4 Procter & Gamble5 The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.6 Merck7 Diageo8 Google9 Shell

10 Pfizer11 Mars, Inc.12 The Coca-Cola Company

=13 L'Oréal=13 Nike=15 Bayer=15 Colgate-Palmolive

17 SAP18 Olam International19 PepsiCo20 Medtronic21 Danone22 Takeda23 Cargill24 General Mills25 GSK

26 Oracle=27 Cigna=27 Novartis

29 WeWork30 Kimberly-Clark31 The Clorox Company

=32 IKEA Group=32 Kellogg Company

34 Intel35 Reckitt Benckiser36 adidas37 Kering

=37 Tyson Foods=39 AB InBev=39 Anglo American=41 Johnson & Johnson=41 Levi's=43 Carrefour=43 H&M Group

45 Adobe46 Microsoft47 Dell48 Under Armour

=49 Archer Daniels Midland=49 McDonald's

51 Salesforce=52 Golden Agri-Resources=52 Louis Dreyfus Company=54 Barry Callebaut=54 IBM=56 Ralph Lauren=56 Walmart

58 Allergan59 Rio Tinto60 Carlsberg61 Amazon62 Nestlé

=63 Cisco=63 Uber

65 PVH Corp.66 Etsy67 LVMH68 Equinix69 Tesco

=70 Autodesk=70 Mondelez

72 Tesla73 Starbucks74 Glencore

=75 HPE

=75 The Kraft Heinz Company=77 Catalent, Inc.=77 Gap

79 Heineken=80 ASOS=80 Patagonia=82 Ahold Delhaize=82 COFCO Corporation

84 Airbnb85 eBay85 VF Corporation87 Applied Materials88 Sainsbury's89 The Home Depot90 Target91 Inter IKEA92 Inditex93 Stella McCartney

=94 Bunge Limited=94 Waitrose & Partners

96 Sonos=97 Rent the Runway=97 Wilmar International

99 ALDI100 Chipotle

FINDINGSOverall ranking



The importance of being a good listenerOur ranking is based on the frequency of posts made, and the amount of engagement achieved. But sustainability social media has the potential to be a two-way conversation – think of it as a digital dinner party. Guests at dinner parties who continually brag about their achievements,

and never show interest in others at the table are bores.

So if you want to make friends, make a point of taking an interest in other people’s posts – especially influencers. This means liking, commenting on, and reposting their content. We call this ‘active listening’.

The most active listener was Mike Barry, with a total of 1,053 responses to other people’s posts – an average 12 a day! Not far behind was Simon Boas Hoffmeyer, Carlsberg’s sustainability director with 832 responses, averaging nine a day.

guidanceLinkedIn has a more tightly focused community than other platforms. It is a place where you can have conversations with other sustainability professionals, get new ideas and share your own. This requires a two-way approach (listening as well as talking). Sharing someone else’s post and adding your own commentary is one of the most effective engagement tactics. Follow influential people in sustainability and engage with their posts. Be original and topical and above all be positive!

ANALYSIS

TOP 10 ACTIVE LISTENERSSustainability Leader Accounts Number of likes and comments made

1 Mike Barry formerly Marks & Spencer 1,053

2 Simon Boas Hoffmeyer Carlsberg 832

3 Tony Milikin AB InBev 273

4 Pia Cook IKEA Group 180

5 Jennifer Silberman formerly Target 145

6 Tyler Wunsch Tesla 109

7 Christopher Stewart Olam International 98

8 Michael Kobori Levi's 95

=9 Flavia Pessanha Shell 85

=9 Sarah Freed Uber 85



LinkedIn vs Twitter – which works best?Almost all companies post sustainability content on their main accounts on both LinkedIn and Twitter. About half of companies also have a sustainability leader posting on both platforms. The main difference in approach is the use of a dedicated sustainability account. On Twitter a third of companies use one, whereas on LinkedIn only three out of 100 companies do.

Which platform wins?

We had a hunch about this, but until we crunched the numbers, had no idea of the margin. LinkedIn generates three to five times more engagement than Twitter.

Many sustainability and social media teams are putting as much or more effort into their Twitter feed as they are to LinkedIn. One caveat here: LinkedIn is especially effective at reaching thought leaders and professionals. When you need to reach consumers, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube come into play. These big consumer platforms will be the focus of our next Sustainability Social Media Ranking.

ANALYSIS

11,361MAIN CORPORATE

ACCOUNTS

3,515MAIN CORPORATE

ACCOUNTS

1,625SUSTAINABILITY

LEADER ACCOUNTS

294SUSTAINABILITY

LEADER ACCOUNTS

Engagement over 3 months



1. Balance messaging and listening When you publish a post, the primary goal is to get your content out. We call it “active messaging”. When you engage with another user’s post, you open a two-way dialogue – “active listening”. Use both messaging and listening for better engagement.

2. Tailor your content to platform and audience LinkedIn is more focused on the professional community than other platforms. The audience includes current employees, potential recruits, business partners and influencers. Create thought-provoking posts to spark conversation amongst these groups.

3. Focus on relevant topics Participate in conversations that are timely and relevant to your work. Follow people, companies, topics and hashtags to ensure you don’t miss a beat.

4. Repurpose content Tremendous effort goes into your sustainability reports, media campaigns, press releases, and events. Adapt this content for LinkedIn, expanding your audience and improving your ROI.

5. Create a community Ask your colleagues to post themselves and share your content. Being generous sharing and commenting on other people’s posts makes it more likely they will return the favor.

6. Use pictures and video Every post should feature a visual element relating to the text such as videos, photos, or branded graphics. Videos should be 30 seconds or less and uploaded directly to the platform – this means they will play automatically.

7. Include a link At the end of your post, include a hyperlink to learn more through a LinkedIn article or external website. Use link shortening sites – like bit.ly.

8. Timing LinkedIn users are most active during the weekdays. Research shows the best times to post are Tuesday through Friday between 8am to 2pm.

9. React, in real-time Monitor LinkedIn activity regularly so you can react quickly. This helps your conversations feel more authentic and drives engagement. If you’re asked a question, respond as quickly as you can.

10. Measure progress Set yourself simple LinkedIn goals, and track your progress. Look to build followers and even more importantly, engagement. LinkedIn Analytics is the tool for company pages.

For maximizing your LinkedIn resultsTOP 10 TIPS


11 CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT

www.contextsustainability.comLondon [email protected]

Los Angeles [email protected]

Design by www.theayres.co.uk. Thanks to David Ayres for his illustrations.© Context Group Limited 2019

We love helping you build a better business. We’re all about clear thinking, smart messaging, and straight talking. We’ve been doing it for 22 years, supported by some of the brightest and most creative minds in sustainability.

Social media

We expand the audience for sustainability communications, reaching customers, influencers, and employees with bespoke, bite-sized content. Our full-service solution drives engagement and following.

l Platform selection and strategy

l Content development and scheduling

l Monitoring and engagement

l Analytics and reporting

StrategyWe customize our strategy services to your needs. With 22 years’ experience, we have a full tool-kit of services to analyze your position and develop a plan of action.

l Material issues assessment

l Stakeholder mapping and engagement

l Strategy development

l Implementation planning

l Risk forecasting and management

l Issue deep-briefings

l Best practice benchmarking

CommunicationsWe tell your sustainability story creatively, clearly, and with credibility. We plan and execute compelling communications campaigns for external and internal audiences across all media. Our communications suite includes:

l Websites

l Sustainability reporting

l Content from infographics to video

l Employee briefing materials

l Executive presentations

l Event and meeting facilitation


RAW DATA TABLE /1

COMPANY NAME FREQUENCY ENGAGEMENTCOMPANY LEADER COMPANY LEADER

AB InBev 7 31 1,913 2,724adidas 11 - 34,403 -Adobe 20 - 7,749 -Ahold Delhaize 8 2 2,460 240Airbnb 4 5 2811 126ALDI 1 - 267 -Allergan 14 - 6,837 -Amazon 6 - 9,633 -Anglo American 25 0 7,081 0Applied Materials 10 - 1,921 -Archer Daniels Midland 19 - 6,629 -ASOS 9 - 3,974 -Autodesk 17 1 2,110 1Barry Callebaut 12 17 2,516 552Bayer 38 - 15,882 -BP 114 - 72,913 -Bunge Limited 3 2 812 31Cargill 22 1 17,539 19Carlsberg 10 6 4,851 486Carrefour 7 23 3,340 2,041Catalent, Inc. 10 9 661 301Chipotle 0 1 0 150Cigna 35 13 6,270 262Cisco 13 9 2,392 109COFCO Corporation 13 0 2,101 0

Data represents sustainability posts from 3 months during the spring of 2019.Posting Frequency and Engagement



RAW DATA TABLE /2

Data represents sustainability posts from 3 months during the spring of 2019.Posting Frequency and Engagement


Colgate-Palmolive 43 5 12,068 359Danone 26 - 19,461 -Dell 23 - 5,605 -Diageo 59 2 35,377 28eBay 10 3 1,595 123Equinix 19 4 1,360 25Etsy 17 - 3,235 -Gap 11 3 2,145 107General Mills 28 8 8,952 224Glencore 14 - 2,599 -Golden Agri-Resources 60 - 1,214 -Google 4 42 43,788 8,502GSK 21 0 19,975 0H&M Group 12 - 17,389 -Heineken 6 2 4,387 62HPE 9 5 2,499 76IBM 9 1 12,415 10IKEA Group 33 31 4,481 686Inditex 3 - 1,793 -Intel 24 4 7,815 262Inter IKEA 6 - 1,377 -Johnson & Johnson 9 6 12,,269 231Kellogg Company 25 2 9335 11Kering 9 9 8.183 1417Kimberly-Clark 31 - 8.487 -



RAW DATA TABLE /3Data represents sustainability posts from 3 months during the spring of 2019.Posting Frequency and Engagement


Levi's 21 2 7.378 150L'Oréal 24 11 28.299 832Louis Dreyfus Company 20 - 5.406 -LVMH 6 - 7.773 -Marks & Spencer 5 390 2.098 45,474Mars, Inc. 60 - 14.704 -McDonald's 10 0 14.537 0Medtronic 34 - 14.846 -Merck 95 0 31.192 0Microsoft 39 - 3.094 -Mondelez 10 3 4.060 148Nestlé 14 - 4.816 -Nike 28 - 51.178 -Novartis 18 - 26.220 -Olam International 36 31 8.390 206Oracle 24 0 14.644 0Patagonia 2 0 6.361 0PepsiCo 33 - 16.818 -Pfizer 42 2 32.364 48Procter & Gamble 56 13 46.891 2,690PVH Corp. 15 - 4.325 -Ralph Lauren 8 - 13.384 -Reckitt Benckiser 24 - 8,108 -Rent the Runway 1 - 545 -Rio Tinto 16 - 5,366 -



RAW DATA TABLE /4Data represents sustainability posts from 3 months during the spring of 2019.Posting Frequency and Engagement


Sainsbury's 7 - 2,107 -Salesforce 15 3 6,581 168SAP 45 3 11,912 72Shell 29 7 52,486 421Sonos 2 - 484 -Starbucks 4 - 6,891 -Stella McCartney 4 - 1,193 -Takeda 30 1 13,361 22Target 1 3 1,559 871Tesco 11 0 5,146 0Tesla 3 5 5,418 40The Clorox Company 27 - 9,563 -The Coca-Cola Company 8 35 13,703 3,476The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. 34 31 36,226 1,789The Home Depot 3 0 2,634 0The Kraft Heinz Company 11 - 3.983 -Tyson Foods 40 - 4,599 -Uber 10 3 5,342 6Under Armour 18 - 7,614 -Unilever 71 - 75,325 -VF Corporation 6 3 2,783 22Waitrose & Partners 3 - 1,259 -Walmart 9 2 8,745 157WeWork 24 7 8,031 639Wilmar International 2 - 158 -



RAW DATA TABLE /1 Data represents active listening by sustainability leaders from 3 months during the spring of 2019Active Listening by Sustainability Leaders

COMPANY NAME

AB InBev 273adidas -Adobe -Ahold Delhaize 31Airbnb 15ALDI -Allergan -Amazon -Anglo American 9Applied Materials -Archer Daniels Midland -ASOS -Autodesk 4Barry Callebaut 80Bayer -BP -Bunge Limited 54Cargill 0Carlsberg 832Carrefour 65Catalent, Inc. 35Chipotle 35Cigna 45Cisco 51COFCO Corporation 0

COMPANY NAME

Colgate-Palmolive 4Danone -Dell -Diageo 6eBay 21Equinix 9Etsy -Gap 11General Mills 9Glencore -Golden Agri-Resources -Google 10GSK 0H&M Group -Heineken 15HPE 18IBM 1IKEA Group 180Inditex -Intel 44Inter IKEA -Johnson & Johnson 16Kellogg Company 0Kering 8Kimberly-Clark -

COMPANY NAME

Levi's 95L'Oréal 24Louis Dreyfus Company -LVMH -Marks & Spencer 1,053Mars, Inc. -McDonald's 1Medtronic -Merck 0Microsoft -Mondelez 31Nestlé -Nike -Novartis -Olam International 98Oracle 3Patagonia 6PepsiCo -Pfizer 16Procter & Gamble 11PVH Corp. -Ralph Lauren -Reckitt Benckiser -Rent the Runway -Rio Tinto -

COMPANY NAME

Sainsbury's -Salesforce 20SAP 15Shell 85Sonos -Starbucks -Stella McCartney -Takeda 48Target 145Tesco 3Tesla 109The Clorox Company -The Coca-Cola Company 3The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. 26The Home Depot 1The Kraft Heinz Company -Tyson Foods -Uber 85Under Armour 56Unilever -VF Corporation 19Waitrose & Partners -Walmart 0WeWork 36Wilmar International -

ACTIVE LISTENING ENGAGEMENT





CONTEXT SPECIAL REPORT LinkedIn vs Twitter – which works …€¦ · Sustainability Social Media...

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