Dutch companies very active on Twitter

More and more companies in the Netherlands are using social media. They use them to communicate with customers and partners, but also for purposes of corporate presence. Within the European Union, companies in the Netherlands are the most active on Twitter.

Over one quarter of companies have Twitter account

In 2013, 27 percent of companies in the Netherlands used blogs or microblogs, such as Twitter. Overall in the EU, only 10 percent of companies use Twitter or similar media.

Company presence on Twitter and other blogs and microblogs, 2013

Social networks most popular

For companies, social networks are the most popular form of social media. In 2013, 46 percent of companies in the Netherlands had an account on a network such as Facebook or LinkedIn. In 2012, this was still only 35 percent. This means that one in ten companies opened a social network account for the first time in 2013.  In addition to the above-mentioned microblogs such as Twitter, posting videos and photos on websites such as YouTube was also popular ((23 percent). Wikis were less popular. Use of all forms of social media by companies increased in the Netherlands in 2013.

Social media use by companies, by type

Social media use serves many purposes

Both in the Netherlands ((76 percent) and the EU, most companies use social media for corporate image building and product marketing. For practically all purposes, in the Netherlands more companies used social media than on average in the EU. The difference with the EU average was particularly large for staff recruitment (50 percent) and collaboration with other companies (44 percent).

Purposes of social media use by companies, 2013

One in three companies set rules

Just over one in three companies (36 percent) had an official company policy for social media use. This may state, for example, that not all employees may post messages on social media on behalf of the company. In 2012, only one in four companies had such a policy.

Danny Pronk