Almost three-quarters (74%) of senior business leaders in Ireland have a Facebook account, and half are on Twitter, according research carried out by by Amárach for law firm McCann FitzGerald.
A survey of 250 senior Irish business leaders and decision makers at large corporates, SME’s and micro-businesses were polled found that while sentiment towards social media was positive as a means of communicating with clients and staff, concerns still lingered about its commercial benefits. A majority of firms (63%) expected social media to be relevant to their business in 2014, yet few expect it to work as a sales channel.
From a management perspective social media is still considered a barrier to productivity. Only 18% of firms surveyed allowed staff access all the time, with 48% offering limited access. A further 18% of blocking staff access completely.
Business decision makers surveyed are themselves quite sophisticated users of social media. Three-quarters of those senior decision makers surveyed claim to have a Facebook account, almost 40% logging on daily.
Half of respondents claimed to have a Twitter account and LinkedIn was reported as the third most popular social network, with a total of 36% of respondents logging in at least once a week. Some 22% said they accessed Google+ daily.
Commpared to the recent IPSOS MRBI Social Networking Quarterly report (Nov 2013), the McCann Fitzgerald survey revealed that business leaders are more tuned in to social media than the general public. Where 72% of business leaders were present on LinkedIn, IPSOS MRBI reported a national figure of 23% and almost twice the as many business leaders have a Twitter account with 50% present compared to the national estimate of 27%. The same trend was evident in Facebook membership, with respondents’ figure of 75% contrasting with a national figure of 55%.
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