Maltese businesses are way ahead of European competitors in making the best use of social media to reach audiences, a recent EU study on ICT usage and e-commerce concluded.

According to this report, compiled by the EU’s statistics office, in 2015 Maltese businesses employing more than 10 persons boasted the highest social media usage rate, at 72 per cent. These included use of social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn, corporate blogs or microblogs like Twitter, multimedia content-sharing websites like YouTube and knowledge-sharing tools like Wikipedia.

By way of contrast, the EU average social media usage rate stood at 39 per cent, with Polish businesses at the bottom of the list, with 22 per cent.

The study, which is published every two years, also gives a detailed analysis of the most popular forms of social media among enterprises. In this respect, Malta also sets the pace when it comes to the combined use of websites and social media, with a 69 per cent rate, nearly double the EU average of 36 per cent.

The third category in which Maltese businesses topped the list was for the use of social networks alone (Facebook and LinkedIn), with 71 per cent.

Compared to the previous study carried out in 2013, it emerged that social networks remained firm favourites among enterprises, with a strong increase in popularity. In this respect Malta and Cyprus registered the highest growth with a 19 per cent increase.

The study shows that apart from reaching out to customers, business partners and other organisations, enterprises used social media for recruitment purposes.

Nearly four of every five businesses (79 per cent) used social media for marketing purposes, and half of them (52 per cent) to improve their customer service, especially in the accommodation sector.

It also transpired that the size of enterprises was not a determining factor in social media use, as the popularity varied from 78 per cent among small businesses to 83 per cent for larger ones.