Social networks mean business

Social networking has become a mainstream marketing business tool in the business-to-business world with 40 per cent of businesses having successfully used social networks to win new business, a global survey commissioned by workspace solutions provider Regus has found.

Testimony to the faith businesses are now putting in the social networking medium is that well over a quarter of businesses worldwide have set aside a proportion of marketing budget specifically for social networking activities.

Social networks are still used for their original range of functions. The most popular use of social networks is staying in touch with business contacts, with 58 per cent of respondents globally declaring they use networks in this way.

Joining special interest groups is also popular (54 per cent). Although a number of sceptics (34 per cent) believe social networking will never become a significant method of connecting to customers and prospects, 51 per cent of firms organise, connect to or manage customer groups via social networks.

Fifty-four per cent of firms use social networks to find out useful business information. Surprisingly, however, only 22 per cent of respondents had found new employment through social networking, this in spite of the specific job search functions of networks such as Linkedin.

"Our survey has revealed that social networking has finally become a mainstream business tool," Olivier de Lavalette, vice president for southern Europe at Regus, said. "While the most popular function of these networks remains that of keeping in touch with contacts, businesses are also successfully acquiring new customers, supporting their retention efforts and interacting with customer groups.

"This survey indicates that organisations who have not yet ventured into the world of social networking may be missing out on sizable business opportunities. This is particularly the case in the Netherlands (48 per cent), India (52), Mexico (50) and Spain (50), where the highest level of new customer acquisition via social networking was reported."

The survey also analysed company size differences and found that overall, small companies were a little more likely than average to use social networking. Perhaps due to this greater than average effort with the medium, 44 per cent of small companies have successfully acquired new customers through social networking compared to medium companies (36 per cent) and large businesses (28 per cent).

The only exception is that a smaller than average number of employees at small firms had found new employment through social networking. This result can best be interpreted in light of slower staff turnover in small companies than their larger counterparts.

Although employees in medium companies were the most likely to have found employment via social networking (25 per cent), medium businesses were also the least likely to use social networks to organise, manage or connect to customer groups (45 per cent).

On a sector basis, the ICT, retail, media and marketing and consultancy sectors made an above-average use of social networking, while manufacturing, financial services and the health sector were lagging behind. Only 19 per cent of companies in the financial services sector had devoted budget to their social networking activities compared to 38 per cent in the retail and media and marketing sectors.