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The Collaborative Internet: Usage Trends, Employee Attitudes and IT Impacts
Fourth Annual Survey, October 2008
Social Networking at Work
The use of social networks on work computers is widespread-and endusers are
equally likely to use these sites for work or personal reasons.
As might be expected, LinkedIn is the predominant social networking site used
for work-related purposes. YouTube is the leading site for personal social
networking at work.
| Sites and Services Used At Work… |
For work-related purposes |
For personal reasons |
| LinkedIn |
62% |
33% |
| YouTube |
34% |
55% |
| Facebook |
18% |
35% |
| Twitter |
13% |
11% |
| Digg |
12% |
10% |
| Del.ic.io.us |
10% |
9% |
| MySpace |
8% |
27% |
| Second Life |
6% |
6% |
| Other |
1% |
3% |
When controlling the kinds of content that can flow across the network-or when
limiting access to certain websites-IT managers need to take a light hand
because many social network sites are used for both work and personal uses. In
fact, some social network sites are used exclusively for work-related purposes
by endusers, contrary to what one might have expected.
| Social Sites |
Both work and personal uses |
For work use only |
For personal use only |
| LinkedIn | 30% | 32% | 3% |
| Facebook | 11% | 7% | 24% |
| MySpace | 5% | 3% | 22% |
| YouTube | 23% | 10% | 32% |
| Twitter | 3% | 10% | 8% |
| Digg | 3% | 8% | 7% |
| Del.ic.io.us | 3% | 7% | 6% |
| Second Life | 1% | 4% | 4% |
| Other | 1% | 0% | 2% |
| None | 13% | 8% | 6% |
Social networking sites and services are used quite frequently. Half of all
endusers access these web-based locations once a day or more frequently (51
percent). In fact, one in four respondents visits a social networking site
several times a day (25%)
Base: Endusers
For work-related reasons, LinkedIn and YouTube enjoy the most frequent use.
Among those who access social network sites several times a day 84 percent go
to LinkedIn while more than half (53 percent) go to YouTube.
For personal surfing reasons (while still at work), frequent users of social
network sites are more likely to go to YouTube or Facebook and then LinkedIn
| |
Work purposes: Several times a day |
Personal purposes: Several times a day |
| LinkedIn | 84% | 44% |
| Facebook | 28% | 59% |
| MySpace | 9% | 31% |
| YouTube | 53% | 69% |
| Twitter | 22% | 22% |
| Digg | 16% | 22% |
| Del.ic.io.us | 13% | 19% |
| Second Life | 9% | 9% |
| Other (please specify) | 0% | 3% |
Base: Endusers
Overall, endusers access these sites for a wide variety of work-related
reasons-but mainly for engaging with colleagues, either via networking (54
percent) or simply learning more about them (52 percent)
| |
Work Uses for Social Networks |
| Professional networking with colleagues | 54% |
| Learning about colleagues | 52% |
| Research | 52% |
| Setting up a meeting | 23% |
| Sales prospecting | 21% |
| Sharing work-related project information | 19% |
| Other | 7% |
| None of these | 17% |
Among endusers who access Facebook at work, Facebook group is most popular for
work-related purposes, while photo sharing is most commonly cited for personal
uses.
| Aspects of Facebook used at work |
For work-related reasons |
For personal reasons |
| Total | N=61 | N=61 |
| Facebook group | 26% | 33% |
| Create and publicize events | 18% | 16% |
| Upload, tag and share Photos | 13% | 46% |
| Posting applications like wall, Fun Wall, Super Wall, Advanced Wall) | 10% | 21% |
| Purchase and give gifts | 7% | 23% |
| Games like Scrabble, Compare People or Lil' Green patch | 3% | 16% |
| None of the above | 46% | 33% |
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