Most admired companies don't meet basic social media norms

A new study has revealed that most admired companies have room for social media improvement.

According to Penn State researchers, not all of America's most admired companies are killing it on social media, in fact, some are almost flat lining,.

Several firms on Fortune Magazine's list of America's most admired companies are failing to achieve basic social media standards, let alone best practices, said Marcia DiStaso, associate professor of public relations,.

DiStaso added that they were surprised that not all the companies had a Twitter account, for instance, and not every company had a Facebook page, or a YouTube page, noting that there are top companies that don't have a Facebook page, but just used an entry from their Wikipedia page.

While 95 percent of the 417 most admired companies on the list had a Facebook page, 51 percent were basic Wikipedia-fed pages. For example, ExxonMobil and Berkshire Hathaway, two of the world's biggest companies, only have default Wikipedia page holders as their Facebook home.

On an industry basis, companies in the consumer packaged goods industry, such as Coca-Cola and Coach, did the best across all three major social media platforms,Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Using social media effectively may help these companies do more than just sell products and services. Social media can establish personal connections between a company and its customers.

The study is published in Journal of Promotion Management.