The #SocialDAX 19

FTI Consulting’s Annual Social Media Performance Index of Germany’s 30 Top Listed Companies

For the third year in a row, FTI Consulting examined how Germany’s top listed companies – the DAX 30 – and communicated their annual results on social media. Our top line insight: quality of content was the winning strategy for generating engagement. Companies are increasingly stepping up their game and creating higher quality content with animation, smart graphic design, and channel-specific content, while experimenting with new channels, such as Instagram.

Our Top 3: Daimler, BMW, SAP

In this year's ranking, Daimler took first place again, followed by BMW and SAP. The Stuttgart-based automaker was able to achieve a high level of interactions with diverse formats such as GIFs and Quote Cards as well as launching channel-specific content. Daimler’s German competitor, BMW leapt into second place this year thanks to a higher number of overall posts and the clever combination of financial reporting with product innovations. SAP - new in the Top 10 and coming in 3rd place – played well on all the social media channels analysed in our index and was thus able to reach more followers.

LinkedIn and Instagram on the Rise

While Twitter continues to dominate in terms of the sheer number of posts during the earnings season, LinkedIn accounted for the most shares, likes, and comments, becoming one of the most relevant social media channels for business communications in Germany. Instagram, a newcomer to our survey this year, benefited from the growing relevance of visual content and demonstrated surprising relevance for financial communication, generating a comparatively high proportion of likes and comments, while Instagram’s parent company, Facebook, declined in overall share of engagement.

Trend: Increasing Use of Animation and Overarching Corporate Messaging

The trend towards animation, which FTI noted last year, continued into the 2019 reporting season, with over half of the DAX 30 using animated infographics to communicate its annual results - twice as many as in the previous year. Video formats are also increasingly being used to communicate financial results. From a longer-term perspective, FTI has taken note of a few trends since starting its Social Dax index in 2017: in addition to the use of multiple channels and the increasingly consistent use of hashtags, many DAX 30 companies are integrating overarching corporate messaging and using financial reporting on social media for storytelling purposes.