Nearly half of the UK’s B2B businesses, including accountants for contractors, are not utilising social media to their best advantage, according to research conducted by PricewaterhouseCooper.
The survey found that although companies are investing money in social media, they are not laying down clear usage strategies or investing in the necessary human resources to make it effective. In fact, less than one in eight B2B companies have a dedicated full-time social media team.
Sean Mahdi, from PwC, explained that social media is transforming the way we work and communicate with each other. Businesses have to adapt to a new way of engaging with customers, who increasingly put more trust in their peers.
B2C companies appear to be exploiting social media with much more success than B2B organisations, he added.
Social media is not only used to drive sales. It can be used to create loyalty to a particular brand, demonstrate that a company is being transparent and responsible and used to create two way dialogue. It is therefore essential for businesses to draw up a strong social media strategy in order to interact successfully with customers.
Network security professionals agree that using social media in the workplace can be good for business, but that it can create risks that companies lack the tools to address.
The Ponemon Institute questioned 4,640 IT practitioners and contractors in twelve countries, including the UK and Hong Kong, and 63% of respondents said that social media usage put their organisation at risk. 52% said their business suffered more malware and virus attacks now that their employees used social media.
Even though the majority of companies allow their employees to use social media at work, 89% of respondents felt it diminished productivity.
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Image: Social Media Magazin by some_communication
