New Statistics Released about Social Media Usage by Business Professionals

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

By: Susan Gunelius

Business.com conducted a study of 2,948 business people around the United States to gauge their usage of social media tools in their jobs, particularly for purchasing.  The goal of the study was to learn where business people find value in social media tools so Business.com can enhance their online offerings, but small business owners can learn from the study findings, too!

Following are some of the key statistics from the study:

  • 69% of respondents use webinars and podcasts to access business information, making them the most commonly used social media tools.
  • Facebook is the most popular social networking site for B2C companies with 83% of respondents maintaining at least 1 Facebook profile and only 45% maintaining Twitter profiles.
  • Facebook and Twitter are nearly equivalent in terms of B2B usage with 77% maintaining Facebook profiles and 73% on Twitter.
  • 62% of respondents visit brand and company social media profiles to do their jobs and 55% search for information on social media sites to do their jobs.
  • Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most active social media users for business purposes, particularly businesses with fewer than 100 employees. Interestingly, IT professionals use social media tools the least.
  • The average company is planning, developing or running 7 different social media initiatives.
  • The majority of respondents have less than 2 years of experience in using social media tools for business.
  • Brand building is a top reason that respondents use social media.
  • The majority of respondents lack metrics to analyze the results of their social media efforts.

Clearly, companies are learning that the social Web offers business value, and that’s why respondents to the study reported that existing policies which restrict the usage of social media tools such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and so on must be revised to reflect the changing world around us.

In other words, your customers are using social media tools, and so should you.

Check out these articles to get started with your own social media initiatives: