Burson-Marsteller just announced the results of their study which examined corporate use of social media by Australia’s top brands [as named by Interbrand’s Best Brands Report].

Wait for it…

17 out of 20 of Australia’s top brands use at least one social network platform to communicate and engage with stakeholders.

…However, many corporate Facebook and Twitter accounts are inactive, suggesting companies are trying to decide how best to use them.

So what’s the takeaway from this?

Well, the fact that several of these accounts aren’t being utilised (perhaps they aren’t exactly sure what to do with them?) suggests that high brand value isn’t necessarily attributed to best use of social media. However, you might extract that the highest value brands, the leaders in their markets, are ahead of their peers in recognising the value of social media – even if they aren’t quite ready to take off the training wheels.

Agree? Disagree? …leave a comment.