FTI Consulting, a global business advisory firm, has released its fourth instalment of the Social Divide performance index under FTI Digital as part of its strategic communications segment.

The results of the analysis of FTSE 100 companies, collected between December 2015 and January 2016, present a clear divide between the online engagement opportunities that each company takes.

According to its report, the performance index reveals the extent to which companies are using social channels and the effectiveness of the shared content in terms of volume, quality and impact. Although there is a lower number of posts overall, the engagement and popularity value have almost doubled. The undisputed leader, BP, who also ranked first in 2015, has results-related content engaged with almost twice as many times as the content of the runner-up, TUI group. Financial services, insurance, real estate and resources are the best performing industries with respectable companies leading the rankings.

The methodology of ranking follows four digital platforms - Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and SlideShare - against three set criteria of volume, quality and impact. The judgement of volume chronicles the number of results-related content, quality ranks the overall quality and impact relates to the total number of interactions. Some companies, like the Vodafone group, use humour to deliver the company’s corporate material. The infographic proves that financial results could be made to be more engaging. Rio Tinto also stood out as a company that maximises video content by incorporating live action footage with animated graphics. Although this was not the most viewed content, it was most engaging, alongside Unilever and Aviva’s videos.

Beyond the results announcement, FTI Digital also included information on how companies can sustain communications and developed two guides for financial reporting on social media and Twitter. It includes the benefits of visual content - it expects Instagram, Periscope and Snapchat to become more widely used in corporate communications - and points on how to effectively spread one message across many channels, merely by changing the tone of the content. The report ends with the complete ranking from one to 68.