Gartner: Social Networking Untapped

SYDNEY -- Most users of social networking Web sites are motivated mainly by personal needs and a desire for entertainment, rather than business and practical objectives, according to a recent survey by Gartner, Inc. Gartner said that although the potential of such sites for business remains largely untapped, they will become increasingly important to the competiveness of large enterprises in the future.

Social networking software holds enormous potential for improving the management of large enterprises,” said Nick Ingelbrecht, research director at Gartner. “However, work in this area is still immature and in the meantime enterprises should be aware of what is happening in the world of consumer social networking and implement appropriate usage policies for employees’ use of services such as Facebook and MySpace on company time.”

Gartner Inc.