Podcasts, webinars most-used social media business tools

Business.com's 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study found that, of those business personnel who use social media channels, podcasts and webinars are the most popular, used by 65% of respondents.

Social networking sites are also used by businesses to search for company or brand profiles (62%) and seek out business information (55%).

"We are constantly analyzing trends to determine exactly what tools business professionals leverage most for purchasing," said Ben Hanna, Ph.D., vice president, marketing, Business.com. "This survey was a way for us to benchmark where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media in order to further enhance our site offerings and better serve our users."

As well as using social media to search and investigate other businesses, 83% of consumer-facing businesses involved in the study maintain at least one social network profile. Under half (45%) have Twitter accounts.

Business-to-business companies, however, maintain a presence on both social channels with 77% maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73% on Twitter.

Tags: B2B, B2C, business tools, social marketing, social media, social network, trends