Three quarters of MDAX companies count on LinkedIn for financial communication

Hamburg, MARCH 7, 2024 - Hamburg-based financial and corporate communications agency Kirchhoff Consult has studied the communication of the 50 MDAX companies on their quarterly results on LinkedIn for the first time. Together with the digital investor relations consultancy junicorn Consulting, the posts on the results of the third quarter of 2023 were analyzed. As part of the study, the posts of the company accounts were evaluated according to category, content and reactions.

Jens Hecht, CFA, Managing Partner of Kirchhoff Consult: "Our analysis illustrates the growing importance of LinkedIn for investor relations departments. Nevertheless, many companies are not yet utilizing the possibilities of digital communication. The lack of posts on important events such as business figures on LinkedIn by one in four MDAX companies shows clear communicative potential."

Julia Stoetzel, founder and CEO of junicorn Consulting: "Effective use of the LinkedIn platform can not only appeal to investors, but also strengthen a company's image. It is crucial to recognize this potential and adapt digital IR communication accordingly in order to make a company's equity story accessible to a broad audience and provide transparent information about the company's development."

The most important results of the study are summarized below:

• 76% of MDAX companies published content on LinkedIn for the publication of their Q3 2023 quarterly figures.

• 53% of the companies that published content posted an image with the LinkedIn post. 50 % of the images posted showed key figures, 30% of the images showed the company, product or manufacturing, 15% showed the CEO or CFO, 10% of the images showed the press release or presentation.

• 37% of the companies published a video. 64% of the videos showed key figures, 36% of the videos showed the CEO or CFO in an interview or speech. The average length of the videos was 1:45 minutes.

• 82% of companies that published a LinkedIn post presented key figures in it. Of these, 74% published information on revenue, 81% information on earnings, 6% information on customers (new customers, subscription customers), 29% information on cash flow and 6% information on the number of employees.

• 63% of the companies that published a LinkedIn post described or explained the business development in the post.

• 73% of the companies that published a LinkedIn post provided information on the forecast.

• 42% of companies that published a post used emojis, 68% used hashtags.

• 42% of companies that published a post included the CEO and/or CFO. Of these, 50% included the CEO, 37.5% the CFO and 12.5% both.

• The MDAX companies have an average of 138,660 followers on LinkedIn. Puma is in first place with around 1.2 million followers, thyssenkrupp is in second place with around 689,000 followers, followed by Evonik with around 519,000 followers.

• The average number of likes and reactions per post is 292. Hugo Boss, Nordex and Lufthansa received the most likes for their content in Q3, although they do not have the most followers on LinkedIn.

METHODOLOGY OF THE SURVEY

The corporate accounts of the 50 MDAX companies were analyzed for the study. The posts on the publication of the Q3 results were analyzed according to the following criteria: Format of the post (video, image, text), indication of key figures, explanations of business development, indication of an outlook, length of the video, visual content, emojis and hashtags, involvement of the CEO or CFO, number of followers, reactions, comments. Reference was also made to the Q3 posts for companies with different financial years.