Today eMarketer published an article on how companies perceive Social Media and the different reasons for it’s use. What follows is the text of the article. I recommend it.

Business executives in the United States are placing a lot of value on Social Media to improve their relationship with clients and to construct their Brands, according to the White Paper, “Social Media: Embracing the Opportunities, Averting the Risks” by Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law.

More than 8 of every 10 Management, Marketing and Human Resource executives that responded to the 2009 survey cited the benefits of Social Media as the basis for better brand construction. Executives also considered Social Media to be a good tool for the recruitment of personnel (69%) and for client services (46%).

Respondents primarily used social media for Branding, followed by networking, client services and different types of research.

Even taking into account the benefits, executives still had concerns related to Social Media. More than half of those that didn’t use Social Media said that they didn’t know enough about the topic, and four out of 10 mentioned issues related to confidentiality and security. Another 37% mentioned worries about employee productivity.

 

These concerns are not new. A global survey carried out in 2009 on security problems with the software Sophos determined that 50-60% of companies looked into how to block access to social networks, primarily for productivity issues, but also for issues related to security (malware) and the possibility that employees share confidential information. In fact, 62.8% of all managers think their employees share “a lot” of information in social networks.