• BBC News, Friday, July 11, 2008 12:45 PM

A new report from Gartner, a market research firm, says that corporations are failing to take advantage of social networks to improve productivity. Gartner researcher Jeffrey Mann said that huge opportunities exist for improving management through social networking, especially at large firms. The challenge, Mann said, was figuring out how to apply these tools to the corporate world.

A recent Gartner survey of 18 countries and territories found that 38% of more than 4,000 PC and mobile users connect to social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace via PCs. It also found that instant messaging, email, chat and file sharing are attracting significant levels among consumers.

"If you look at the first reaction from any business when they examine this, it's there is no reason to do this," Mann said, referring to the survey results. "But you have to look deeper as to why these people are using these networks. It's to keep up with their friends, to mobilize them, to get involved in everything from politics to cleaning the local park. If you look at those reasons, then there are a lot of business counterparts."

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