SMBs avoid social media

Few small- to mid-sized companies are joining the social media conversation, according to a new survey by Citibank and GfK Roper. Of the 500 businesses surveyed, 76 percent have not found social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be helpful in generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86 percent say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information.

A recent article by Information-Management.com notes the benefits of social networking as a business tool in areas such as expanding market research and improving the company's reputation. But David Kelleher also claims that there are five major reasons companies may want to maintain that healthy distance from social media:

• Productivity: "If every employee in a 50-strong workforce spent 30 minutes on a social networking site every day, that would work out to a loss of 6,500 hours of productivity in one year," points out Kelleher. That's fine if people are using social networking the right way, and not also keeping up with personal/social contacts.
• Resources: A few updates here and there may add up to additional bandwidth expenses.
• Risk: Viruses and Malware are a rampant on social networking site and your company could make itself a target.
• Social engineering: The data your company releases to social networks can become a threat in it's own right, causing your company to fall victim to an online scam, says Kelleher.
• Reputation and liability: Whether it's your CEO, a reporter or someone in marketing, the employee engaged in social media will likely be commenting publicly about the company. If complaints are ever involved in postings, this could lead to serious legal consequences.

For more:
- read the complete article from Information-Management.com

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