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Social Media Are Essential to Business Growth

Using social media to facilitate communication within corporate structures has become an essential tool for innovation, say 2,700 business executives in a new survey of Europe. 

What’s the Latest Development?

A new survey of business professionals across Europe shows how important social media have become at innovating within companies. Of the survey’s 2,700 professionals across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the UK, “…a huge proportion of high-growth businesses (81%) are using social tools to facilitate expansion and improve the ways in which teams collaborate and share knowledge.” And while social media are typically considered tools for younger generations, the data indicate that “those in senior roles actually use them far more regularly than their more junior colleagues.”

What’s the Big Idea?

“Three-quarters of senior executives surveyed said that social tools will change business strategy, stating that they had already been able to improve the following aspects of their business – bringing together ideas and thoughts from a geographically dispersed team (79%), productivity (76%) and the ability to find information, people and expertise more quickly (72%).” To be sure, social media are not a panacea for better business, but because they represent a cultural change in how we communicate, rather than just another technological change, companies ignore social media at their own peril. 

Photo credit: Shutterstock.com

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