Businesses using Social Networking to do business

65% use sites to make professional connections

31 May 2007 1:22 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Two out of three business people have admitted to using social networking sites to make professional connections according to new research out this week.

The US Institute for Corporate Productivity found 65% of business people use such tools even though sites like Bebo, MySpace and Facebook are supposedly dominated by kids.

Not surprisingly, LinkedIn proved the most popular of professional social networks in the survey, followed by Yahoo 360 and MySpace.

The study revealed that employees are quickly gravitating toward leveraging social networks for very traditional business uses.

About half (52%) of respondents whose organisations are using social networking sites do so to keep internal staff and remote employees connected, while 47% of total respondents use the networks to connect with potential clients and to showcase their skills. A total of 35% say they use networks to assist them in finding a job.

Of those respondents who do not currently utilise social networks, the top reason (37%) is simply that they don't know what networks to use.

The majority of respondents (59%) said they would likely use social networks if they knew that such use would assist their professional development (31% say they already do), and a full 77% would welcome using them if they thought the networks could aid organisational efficiency.

>> Comment on this story