Largest Study to Date of Social Media Use by Business Professionals Reveals Inner Workings of Key Medium

Largest Study to Date of Social Media Use by Business Professionals Reveals
Inner Workings of Key Medium
Business.com Study of Nearly 3,000 North American Professionals Identifies Top
Trends; Webinars & Podcasts Earn Top Honors, Facebook Outshines Twitter in B2C
and CIOs Should Rethink Limiting Access to Social Networks at Work

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Nov. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Business.com -- the Web's leading
ally for busy people interested in making more informed and effective business
purchasing decisions - unveiled today results of its 2009 Business Social
Media Benchmarking Study. Based on insights from 2,948 professionals across
North America, the study provides extensive information on how businesses and
business people use social media in the workplace.

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Key survey findings include:

-- Webinars and podcasts are top social media resources for business
professionals, used by 69% of those who turn to social media channels
for business information.
-- Facebook is the dominant social network on which consumer-focused
companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83% of respondents
versus 45% for Twitter. Business-to-business (B2B) companies, however,
maintain a presence on both platforms with 77% maintaining a profile
on
Facebook and 73% on Twitter.
-- Current trends to restrict access to social networks like Facebook or
Twitter at work need to be re-thought in light of the business value
in
such activity.
-- Among respondents using social media for business purposes in
their
day-to-day jobs, 62% visit company or brand profiles on social
networking sites and 55% search for business information on these
sites.
-- Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most
active users of social media as a resource for business information,
particularly in micro (<10 employees) and small businesses (10-99
employees). IT professionals have the lowest participation rate.
-- Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with
social media.
-- The average company in this study was planning, developing or
running seven different social media initiatives; 65% of
respondents
staffing those initiatives, and 71% of companies themselves, have
less than two years of experience with social media for business.

-- Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the top
social
media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies focused on
these metrics have little to no insight into performance via standard
or
easily accessible reports.

"We are constantly analyzing trends to determine exactly what tools business
professionals leverage most for purchasing," said Ben Hanna, Ph.D., vice
president, marketing, Business.com. "This survey was a way for us to
benchmark where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social
media in order to further enhance our site offerings and better serve our
users."

The study also delved into business participation on, and attitudes toward,
Q&A sites to support development of the company's new offering, Business.com
Answers (http://answers.business.com/). Business.com Answers is an online
resource where users ask questions about business challenges, products or
services and receive high quality advice from experienced industry colleagues.

The survey was conducted online from August 11 to September 4, 2009. 2,948
unique respondents from the United States or Canada currently using social
media as part of their normal work routine (e.g., read blogs, use Twitter to
find business-related information, etc.) and/or work for a company involved in
social media initiatives participated in the study. A copy of the complete
study can be downloaded from
http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study.

All questions about social media usage and specific results to the survey can
be broken-out by one or more of the respondent profile dimensions. Contact
Jonathan Cutler (jonathan@verseinc.com) for more information or to request a
custom analysis.

About Business.com
Business.com (http://www.business.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of R.H.
Donnelley Corporation, is the Web's leading ally for busy people interested in
making more informed, more effective business purchasing decisions. The site
has more than 8 million unique visitors per month and the company maintains a
strong presence in the emerging world of B2B social media through Twitter,
blogging and the recently launched Business.com Answers. The Business.com site
directly connects B2B advertisers with active business buyers searching for
products and services across all stages of the purchasing process.

Contact:
Allison Perkins
323-336-0742
allison@verseinc.com

SOURCE Business.com

Allison Perkins, +1-323-336-0742, allison@verseinc.com