A recent UK workplace survey commissioned by content security company, Clearswift, found that 71% of office workers aged 18-29 access social media sites at least a few times a week, while 39% access them several times a day. 27% of young office workers in the UK visit social media sites, for personal reasons, while at work.
42% of young workers actually discuss work-related issues on these social media sites.
While some companies might consider this to be a threat to information security, many others will see this as a positive trend as Web 2.0 interactions allow employees to be more resourceful and develop new ideas with external help that is otherwise not available within the organisation (without paying a hefty consultatation fee).
A parallel survey carried out in the US found 43% of the US workforce accessed social media sites from their computers at work. For both groups, sites such as YouTube, MySpace and blogs were extremely popular.
Surprisingly, 29% of organisations surveyed in the USA do not allow use of Web 2.0 social media sites at work.
The sample size for the survey was 2,629 adults in the UK, while that in the USA was 827 people from a variety of industries and organisation sizes.
