Social networking is popular with business people

Forget the morning coffee clatch or afternoons spent at the watercooler, today's business professionals - the demographic that most marketers want to appeal to - are socializing online. According to a new study, social networks are the key to targeting young professionals.

by Kristina Knight

HR.com and i4cp conducted The Social Network Practitioner Consensus Survey jointly in May. They found that 65% of business professionals were logging on to social networking websites during their day. This demographic connects for both personal and professional networking, according to the survey.

Jay Jamrog, i4cp’s SVP of Research said, “Social networks have opened a new dynamic in bringing that community online, and the ability to share what’s working and what isn’t in real time is invaluable to many employees today. We expect to see this continue in earnest among corporations, and we particularly expect to see the small- to medium-size business market gravitate here so that they can augment traditionally thin staffs with expertise from larger organizations.”

LinkedIn is the most popular social networking hub for professionals, followed by Yahoo's 360 and MySpace. Why are they connecting? Just over 50% said, they use social networks to connect internal staff and remote or outsourced employees. Roughly 47% use social networks to showcase their abilities and connect with clients and 35% said, they logged on to social networks to find their next job.