Will Social Media Adoption Drive Productivity?

Though many marketers have embraced the medium, US workers are split on whether social tools help them do their jobs.

According to an October 2009 IDC survey, more than one-third of US employees were using consumer social networks for business purposes. A NetProspex and Rapleaf study of the NetProspex contact database indicates usage may have risen by Q1 2010, with 43% of US employees saying they used LinkedIn for professional reasons.

Some groups, such as human resources professionals, seem positive about the usefulness of social networks on the job. But Melcrum found in early 2010 that global communications professionals were evenly split as to whether there was a business case for using social for internal communication.

According to research from the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), about half of workers feel social has helped them do their jobs at least to a moderate extent. The other half disagree.

Finding resources more easily and improving knowledge-sharing were the top reasons ASTD respondents gave for using social media at work.

ASTD’s report cautions that with more millennials entering the workforce, for whom social media is very much a part of life, office culture may change and social may become as indispensable as e-mail to the lives of employees.

While IT professionals may fear the loss of control, and more companies may have to put in place policies that prevent employees from revealing sensitive or damaging information through social media, business-to-business marketers can be assured that much of their target audience can be found on social sites.

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