Many of the big names at MWC are failing to make the most of their social media channels, with some completely failing to engage with followers.

Ahead of the show this year, we took a look at ten of the ‘biggest’ names at the show to find out how they’re using Twitter and Facebook and where they’re falling short. Sony Mobile was the best consumer brand, with Ericsson topping the vendors.

Sony Mobile’s excellent Facebook page took it into first place overall ahead of Huawei and Samsung Mobile, with Ericsson impressing across both of its global Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Rather than looking at follower numbers or Facebook fans, we analysed how the pages were being used and the type of content being published, using the same scoring system from our annual review of the Deloitte Fast 50.

For mobile companies it’s fair to say that social media is an important channel and one that it pays to get right – just look at the response of O2 in last year’s network outage to see how your social media team can turn around a crisis.

Overall we found that some of the biggest names in mobile are not doing a bad job at social media – but there’s plenty of room for improvement. Too many companies are still relying on pushing one-way marketing updates and not driving discussions themselves.

Tweeting the right content

Too many of the companies we benchmarked are relying on one-way marketing posts through Twitter, with only Nokia, ZTE and Sony Mobile keeping their accounts free from the type of posts that often cause people to unfollow.

Of the companies we looked at, Nokia UK was by far and away the strongest, posting a regular and varied stream of content designed to really engage its followers.

Ericsson also impressed with the variety of content and engagement – but lost marks for only having a single global account. In this regard Alcatel-Lucent fared slightly better by at least having an EMEA account – a sensible middle ground for a vendor without the need for direct consumer engagement in each market.

Keeping Facebook engaging

On Facebook it’s not just about sharing cat pictures. Instead brands need to drive discussion on their pages and share a good mix of content, from company news to third party updates. Of the brands with an active Facebook profile, we found that HTC, Samsung Mobile and Qualcomm have the most to do.

Qualcomm and HTC in particular were failing to drive discussion on their pages, instead focusing on posting their own news and waiting for people to engage.

Lessons for you

EML Wildfire will be at MWC next week, so if you’re wondering how you’d compare to some of the show’s biggest names or where your campaign needs improving, get in touch to arrange a meeting.

Methodology

To get a clear picture of how some of MWC’s biggest companies were using social media, EML Wildfire put each company through the same analysis process. Rather than just recording whether or not these organisations were on social networks, the benchmark took an in-depth look at what they were saying and doing through social channels, as well as how frequently they were engaging with their audience. For each company we focused on the UK mobile channels where possible and for vendors we looked for a UK or Europe page.

The ten companies benchmarked were: Samsung Mobile, Qualcomm, HTC, Nokia, LG, Alcatel-Lucent, Huawei, Ericsson, ZTE and Sony Mobile.