FT ComMetrics Blog Index 2009

As of May 13, 2009: Just a few years ago, companies had hardly considered blogs as a viable option for corporate communication. Today, they are getting ever more attention. Some of it has been applied in the last six months.

This is the main message for the first FT ComMetrics Blog Index of Corporate Blogging Effectiveness. Fully half of the blogs we have examined in the last few months have experienced substantial developments and changes.

These data were taken May 13, 2009. You can find an updated list here:

Latest FT ComMetrics Blog Index - FTCBI

Rank	Company
1	Google	100	8	5345	3519	643909	107032
2	Reuters	68	7	1002	216367	4850236	6
3	Viacom	44	6	857	2068	996840	8578
4	Yahoo!	40	7	1005	180626	145847	9426
5	Oracle	39	7	1011	192864	131994	6563
6	Microsoft	38	8	815	2242	38543	370
6	Nokia	38	7	831	176868	274554	2347
8	General Electric	36	7	1027	205377	2718	81
8	Adobe	36	6	426	207820	33734	14287
10	Dell	32	6	417	213355	75	4999
11	Chevron	31	6	425	213415	322	15
11	GM	31	6	420	213347	11722	277
11	Time-Warner	31	6	424	213329	3899	232
11	Accenture	31	6	436	213049	7465	5
11	Boeing	31	6	440	209902	21499	234
11	Hewlett Packard	31	6	411	207559	1120	1
11	Alcoa	31	6	413	204729	13	4
11	Amazon	31	6	414	204548	6054	129
11	Wells Fargo	31	6	416	204361	621	52
11	Coca-Cola	31	6	420	204169	3199	214
11	AOL	31	6	190	18112	16839	54
22	eBay	30	6	333	232005	10649	39
22	IBM	30	6	334	231729	9	1
22	News Corporation	30	6	70	70144	8946	1063
22	Wal-Mart	30	6	98	45506	2409	140
22	Nike	30	6	104	42095	3545	344
27	Cisco	28	6	17	334687	18792	149
27	EMC	28	5	75	64293	4816	211
27	McDonald's	28	5	77	62261	7686	339
30	Renault	27	5	109	375541	12058	49
30	American Express	27	5	110	373493	11418	1873
32	Emerson Electric	26	5	89	430088	5676	210
32	SAP	26	5	90	429175	40	0
32	Daimler	26	5	89	427809	15990	263
32	InBev	26	5	90	401637	5625	84
32	Volvo	26	5	112	393524	0	3
32	Fedex	26	5	112	393224	1623	47
32	BNP Paribas	26	5	113	392932	1477	7
32	Telstra	26	5	112	387873	143	2
32	France Telecom	26	5	15	376302	4910	37
32	E.ON	26	5	110	372883	267	1
32	Telenor Group	26	5	110	372251	584	1
32	Ericsson	26	5	104	365209	24	0
44	Siemens	25	6	5	935244	13945	21
45	Johnson Controls	24	5	8	648934	138	13
45	Petro Canada	24	4	12	460707	416	29
47	BBVA	23	4	44	698554	10568	118
47	Johnson & Johnson	23	4	44	698365	7903	308
47	Royal Bank of Canada	23	4	51	685052	312	12
47	Samsung	23	4	51	681707	2996	19
47	Aviva	23	4	51	679932	85	1
47	Procter & Gamble	23	4	51	678155	58	9
47	Kraft Foods	23	3	21	272274	701	42
54	Unilever	22	4	48	856931	23	1
54	Sygenta	22	4	48	826365	133	1
54	GlaxoSmithKline	22	4	48	825469	263	15
54	Sony	22	4	43	746039	374	3
54	Arcelor Mittal	22	4	44	701773	341	5
59	Swisscom	21	4	5	935509	6439	33
60	Henkel	20	3	40	889284	544	27
60	Berkshire Hathaway	20	3	0	770942	7609	89
60	Bank of America	20	3	50	769900	1124	26
60	Deutsche Bank	20	3	50	768774	67	1
60	Fiat	20	3	50	766460	10	1
65	Deutsche Telekom	19	5	2	1725742	1717	17
65	Bayer	19	3	39	931879	2313	3
67	ING	15	2	3	1341419	4462	35
68	Nissan	14	2	6	1515818	23774	140
68	ABB	14	2	6	1510889	287	4
70	Royal/Dutch Shell	11	0	44	1483173	0	0
70	Toyota	11	0	44	1471506	4762	221
70	Novo Nordisk	11	0	45	1446585	21	3
70	Nestl�	11	0	45	1439431	70	2
74	Verizon Communications	10	0	43	1645726	2549	46
74	UPS	10	0	45	1553867	0	0
76	Telia Sonera	0	4	0	4814328	262	7

Note. Some of the calculations used in this table draw upon publicly available information that has not been independently investigated by ComMetrics - a division of CyTRAP Labs GmbH. Other data were independently investigated and collected by ComMetrics. Rankings do not represent a guarantee of future performance for blogs.
In the case of several blogs from one company (e.g., Daimler, Dell, Google, Oracle and Wal-Mart), the highest ranking one is included in this list.Check out more about the methodology used and composite indices applied.
Blogs that require registration to gain access are NOT included in this list because gated communities do not follow the Internet's philosophy of making information freely and easily available to the public.
Methododology.
The FT ComMetrics Blog Index ranks the effectiveness of the corporate blogs of the top 75 companies from the US, Europe and the rest of the world listed on the FT Global 500 2008.
To create the table, the highest-scoring corporate blog is given a ComMetrics Footprint score of 100, and other scores are recalculated as a percentage in relation to that top score. The corporation with an overall score of 100 is therefore not necessarily top in every category; rather, it has accumulated the highest composite score.
To arrive at a corporation’s rank, we examine the data for each indicator and standardize the value for each about its mean using z-scores. All criteria are then aggregated and re-standardized. The following categories are used in the table of raw data.
● Google PageRank interprets web links and assigns a numerical weighting to each site.
● Technorati Authority analyses the number of links to a blog from other sites.
● Technorati Ranking rates blogs according to authority and popularity.
● Yahoo! InLinks monitors links to a blog.
● Google Blog Search is a search engine for blogs that produces lists of results, the
●ComMetrics Footprint is the rankings we calculate using the above indicators.

What will happen during the current economic downturn? Tough recessionary times would suggest that more emphasis should be placed on this effective communications medium. We'll keep you posted.

P.S. - Some would say that there are no good indicators other than a site's own unique visitor numbers and bounce rate. However, these measures are increasingly inaccurate when attempting to determine the value derived from non revenue-generating activities like blogging. Of course, the indicators and composite indices we provide above may not give you the whole truth and nothing but the truth either.

Thus, data do help demonstrate a trend and while the difference between 90 versus 120 backlinks may be real, it is not necessarily something to worry about. Still, if your backlinks dropped or your competitors' backlinks improved significantly within the last six months, then getting your social media budget approved probably just got more difficult. Unless you can show how this will help to move your blog up in the rankings.