FTSE 100 Companies Fail To Take Twitter Seriously Says Survey

Virgin Media Business carried out a survey that shows that only 16 percent of the top 100 companies listed on the FTSE 100 table use microblogging website Twitter to communicate with their customers regularly.

The study also pointed out to the fact that more than half have an account on Twitter but two thirds have failed to follow up with a clear commitment to the service. That could cost them dear, literally, as services or brands appear in around 1 in every 5 tweets that's roughly 13 million messages every day.

72 percent of those who signed up have never used their Twitter presence to reply to customer enquiries or comments about them which drew comparison with the process of opening a call centre and not answering any phone calls.

Phil Stewart, VMB's director of customer service, explains that “We have seen Twitter use skyrocket recently, and some five billion tweets have been posted since October alone; with so many people sharing their thoughts online, it's no surprise that many are talking about companies. Clearly this presents an excellent opportunity to engage with customers, but many are missing out.”