Following in the emerging trend, large international companies are now becoming active participants in social media like their consumers. A recent Burson-Marsteller study found that 79 percent of the largest 100 companies in the Fortune Global 500 index are using at least one of the most popular social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube or corporate blogs.

Key findings from the study:

• OVERALL: 79% Fortune Global 100 companies are using at least one of the social media platforms, but only 20% are utilizing all four platforms to engage with stakeholders.

• ACROSS PLATFORM: Twitter is the most popular social media tool among Fortune Global 100 companies, with almost two-thirds (65%) having a presence on it. At least one-half are reaching audiences through Facebook (54%) and YouTube (50%). One-third (33%) maintain corporate blogs.

• ACROSS REGION: Companies based in the United States and Europe were most likely to use Twitter (US: 72%, Europe: 71%) or Facebook (US: 69%, Europe: 52%) than they were to have corporate blogs (US: 34%, Europe: 25%), while companies from Asia-Pacific were more likely to utilize corporate blogs (50%) than other forms of social media (Twitter: 40%, Facebook: 40%).

• PRESENCE: On average, the Fortune Global 100 companies have 4.2 Twitter accounts, 2.1 Facebook fan pages, 1.6 YouTube channels and 4.2 corporate blogs.

• ACTIVITY: Companies with active accounts have 27 tweets per week, 3.6 Facebook posts per week, 10 new YouTube videos per month and 7 blog posts per month. Within the last week (during the period of data collection) 82% had tweeted and 59% had posted content on their Facebook fan page. And in the prior month, 68% had posted a video on YouTube and 36% had posted an entry on a corporate blog.

• ENGAGEMENT: Companies using Twitter were following an average of 731 people each, and 38% of companies were responding to people’s tweets. 32% have also “re-tweeted” or reposted user comments during the last week.

Unfortunately, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been blocked in China till now. So I don’t have any comment on regard to local insight.