Who's Piloting Your Social Media Ship?

The importance of social media to a business is now well known and proven.  More than a third of all companies in the States now actively engage in social media according to a  recent survey from CareerBuilder.com.

Its management within an organisation is often piecemeal at best and this lays an enterprise open to brand and reputation issues.

According to Mike Sachoff, 43 percent of employers have their marketing departments take care of their social media strategy, followed by public relations (26%) and human resources (19%). Twenty-five percent of employers have 1-3 people communication for their organization, while 7 percent have 4-5 people handle the work. Eleven percent have six or more people communicate for their company via social media and fifty-seven percent said they did not know.

Fifty seven percent of "don't knows" is a big number and graphically demonstrates the fragmentary nature of social media control and monitoring.

So how much control should companies exercise given that many are averse to their employees freely using social media but equally concerned that they should be able to do so?

Responsible use can be of great benefit it is the loosed cannons that are a concern to employers.

They might well consider using a tool such as Socialite; a name that has nothing to do with the likes of Paris Hilton and is developed by a company called Facetime (which in itself is a little confusing as they have just sold their brand name to Apple).

Facetime's own survey has found that:

• The use of social networks and social media sites is not only widespread, but has seen a significant shift in usage profiles.
  Sixty-one percent of end users use these sites at least once a day, up from 51%. Fifteen percent use social networks "constantly throughout the day." Social networking is used by 95% of respondents.
  
  
• The most common work-related purposes cited are for professional networking, 79% (up from 54%), and learning about colleagues, 66% (up from 52%).
  Thirty-seven percent of respondents use social networks for sales prospecting.
  
  
• LinkedIn is the most commonly used site for professional purposes (86%, up from 62%).
  For personal purposes, Facebook leads the pack with 93% of end users accessing the site, at work, for personal reasons. YouTube is used by 51% of end users for work-related purposes. Twitter is used by 76% for work purposes and 62% for personal reasons.
  
  
• Eighty-nine percent of Facebook users utilize the status updates function, with 28% using Facebook at work to play games such as Farmville, Mafia Wars or Scrabble.
  Thirty-five percent utilize Facebook to create and publicize events and 44% join "fan groups."

View the Socialite (aka Facetime) presentation

Related articles by Zemanta

• CareerBuilder: One-Third of Employers Use Social Media to Promote Their Organizations (pamil-visions.net)
• How Far Will Employers Go to Control Employee Social Media Use? (webpronews.com)