Jan 16, 2013, 3:39pm

Burson-Marsteller, a leading global public relations and communications firm, today launched the Latin America Social Media Check-up 2013, which examines the use of social media platforms by the top 225 companies in Latin America. The study looks at how these companies use Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, blogs and, for the first time, Google Plus.

According to the study, 65 percent of companies in Latin America are now active on at least one social media platform, marking an increase of 16 percentage points since 2010 when the first Latin America Social Media Study was conducted. Facebook maintained its popularity, and the study showed an 11 percentage point increase in use of the platform since 2010. However, Twitter now rivals Facebook as the platform of choice. Indeed, more than half of the companies (53 percent) examined have at least one Twitter account, an increase of 21 percentage points from the previous study.

“This year’s study not only shows the rising presence of companies on social media platforms, but also a significant increase in their engagement with stakeholders through these channels,” said Ramiro Prudencio, CEO of Burson-Marsteller Latin America. “More than half of corporate accounts engage with followers through @mentions or retweets, and the number of likes per company Facebook pages grew exponentially. Rather than pushing content, companies are establishing dialogues with their audiences. This two-way method of communication is fairly new in the region.”

In addition to increasing their use of social media platforms, companies are also creating specific profiles for each of their brands, allowing them to engage with target audiences in one or even multiple markets.

“There is evidence that companies are creating content to meet the needs of each of their stakeholders,” said Cely Carmo, Lead Digital Strategist for Latin America. “The usage of social media is becoming more strategic, and both content and language need to be platform and audience specific.”

Burson-Marsteller compared data collected during 2012 with Burson-Marsteller’s Latin America Social Media Study 2010, The Global Social Media Check-Up 2010 and The Global Social Media Check-Up 2012. The sample included the 25 top companies, based on revenue, from each of the following markets: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela.

To access the complete analysis of these findings, visit bm.com/social.

Other key findings include:

• The average number of followers per corporate Twitter account was higher in Brazil (66,958) and Mexico (43,017) than any other market.
• The percentage of companies with Facebook pages more than doubled in Argentina (48 percent in 2012 v. 20 percent in 2010), Brazil (52 percent in 2012 v. 16 percent in 2010), Peru (52 percent in 2012 v. 25 percent in 2010) and Puerto Rico (24 percent in 2012 v. 5 percent in 2010).
• Companies in Peru are most responsive to Facebook fans, averaging 27 responses to fans’ posts per corporate page in one week of data collection.
• Nearly one-third of companies (30 percent) are actively sharing content on YouTube.
• Forty percent of companies in Brazil, 32 percent of companies in Mexico and 40 percent of companies in Peru are on Google Plus.

About Burson-Marsteller

Burson-Marsteller, established in 1953, is a leading global public relations and communications firm. It provides clients with strategic thinking and program execution across a full range of public relations, public affairs, reputation and crisis management, advertising and digital strategies. The firm’s seamless worldwide network consists of 73 offices and 85 affiliate offices, together operating in 110 countries across six continents. Burson-Marsteller is a unit of WPP, the world’s leading communications services network. For more information, please visit bm.com.