The Blog

This article forms part of a study on social media usage amongst FTSE 100 companies.

Each company in the FTSE 100 index was reviewed on its usage of such social media tools as RSS feeds*, blogs, online video, podcasts and social media platforms like Flickr and Facebook on its main website and on occasion, on websites of well-known subsidiary companies.

*RSS feeds are a simple way of delivering fresh versions of a website’s content to online readers automatically.

According to the Guardian.co.uk Business Glossary:
“The FTSE 100 index comprises the 100 most highly capitalised blue chip companies on the London Stock Exchange, representing approximately 81% of the UK market.”

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Here’s how global telecomms giant, BT (BT-A.L) stacked up.

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Online Video/Webcasts: Yes
Usage of Social Media platforms: No
(Flickr, Facebook, YouTube, del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg etc)

According to Yahoo! Finance:

“More commonly known as BT, BT Group is a British and European telecommunications giant. It provides local, national, and international telecommunications services, bandwidth, and Internet access services, as well as information technology services.”

My pre-evaluation expectation of how the company will fare:
BT should have lots of social media on their website.  If they don’t I will be sorely disappointed.

Commentary:
BT’s corporate site, BTplc.com does have a fair bit of social media but it is tucked away in the Media Centre and Innovation sections of their rather slick website.

The Media Centre page links to the latest BT news, streaming video news and video podcasts.  The Innovation page includes links to BT’s RSS feeds and some interesting online videos discussing BT’s take on current and future technology.

Yet another link to the Olympics Games: BT is the Official Communications Services Partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.  They even have a video rich microsite supporting the British Paralympics team, complete with a Donate button!

Other Olympic links in this study include BHP Billiton who are sponsoring the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and BP who are the official Oil and Gas Partner for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Recommendations:

• No ‘Share or Bookmark’ buttons -  Whilst BT scores top marks for using RSS feeds on the corporate home page and including some online video, there are no ‘Share’ buttons on the site. These ‘social sharing tools’ on web pages allow the reader to automatically bookmark or share content with friends using social platforms services like del.ici.ous, Digg or Facebook.
• Create a BT Blog -  BT does not blog.  Would be nice if it did. I would have had more reason to stick around on visiting their corporate website. A first article could have been this one:

BT – a company in transformation

BT’s future as a company is based on its ability to transform itself from a fixed-line business to a software-driven global communications services company.  That was the key message delivered today by BT chairman Sir Michael Rake in his first address to the company’s shareholders since taking over the helm.  Read more

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What do you think?
Are you a customer, employee, shareholder or stakeholder of BT? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this review. What would you like to see BT doing more of in terms of social media? More archive video? A CEO blog, perhaps?

Share your thoughts in the comments.

Need any help?
Do you work for BT and want some insight into some of the ideas published here?

Or perhaps you look after marketing for BT and would like a quick chat about putting some of those recommendations into practice.  Contact us.

Related posts:

1. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BP
2. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BG Group
3. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BSkyB Group
4. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Admiral Group
5. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – BHP Billiton