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.”

Here’s how the international telecoms provider, Cable & Wireless (CW.L) stacked up.

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Online Video: Yes
Usage of Social Media platforms: Yes

(Facebook)

According to Yahoo! Finance:

 “The British Group, Cable & Wireless, established at the end of the 19th century, has, over the years, acquired a wealth of experience in the telecommunications environment. It is currently one of the world leaders in this field. After focusing on setting up fixed and mobile telephony networks, it has now moved into the Internet era.”

My pre-evaluation expectation of how the company will fare:

Due to the nature of the business, I am expecting lots of social media.

Commentary:

When I first came to the Cable and Wireless website it looked nice, colourful and easy to navigate. Since each of their services was colour coded I felt it was easier to navigate, rather than having to remember where you had seen a certain link to take you to a page on their site.

More importantly and from understanding what sector the company lies in, I would have thought social networking tools to be one of the features of the website, but it was not!

However, I did have a look for them on Facebook and Twitter. I found them on Facebook but not on Twitter. Since the company lie in the communications market, do you think they should really be on more social networking sites to increase their ‘online presence’ and become more ‘socially aware’?

I did however find a video located on their Public Sector page. It was a video on what customers thought about Cable & Wireless. This video could have also been on the About Us page, as it gives people insights about what other people think of their company.

I would have thought that communicating through videos and different forms of multimedia on their site would be their focal point. I therefore searched for them on YouTube. I finally found their YouTube channel after some time, but could have this page been easier to find if its link was displayed on their homepage? 

Recommendations:

Social media tools need to be included on the site: Their Facebook page needs to become more prominent by having it displayed on the site.

Displaying YouTube: YouTube could be displayed on the homepage to make their customers more aware of the services they provide.

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What do you think?
Are you a customer, employee, shareholder or stakeholder of Cable & Wireless? I would love to hear your thoughts on this review. What would you like to see Cable & Wireless doing more of in terms of social media? More online video? Re-designing their web page? A CEO blog, perhaps?

Share your thoughts in the comments!

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

Or perhaps you look after marketing for Cable & Wireless and would like a quick chat about putting some of these recommendations into practice. Contact us.

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1. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Capita
2. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Experian
3. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Diageo
4. Social media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Compass Group
5. Social Media Usage in the FTSE 100: Company Profile – Man Group