SOCIAL MEDIA COSTS UK MARKET £14 BILLION
Social networking should be renamed social notworking after its damage to the UK economy was revealed.
A study showed more than half of British workers confessed to accessing social media profiles at work, with many spending so much time friending, Tweeting, adding photos and video, as well as updating their profiles, that companies' productivity was suffering as a result.
Regional jobsites firm MyJobGroup.co.uk found nearly 6% - or two million, of the UK's 34 million-strong workforce - spent more than an hour per day on social media while at work.
This amounts to more than one eighth of their entire working day.
With UK GDP at £2trillion in 2009, MyJobGroup.co.uk warned that Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks could potentially be costing the UK up to £14billion in lost work time.
SMEs are most likely to be hit hardest hit by the drop in productivity.
The survey also revealed more than half (55% of the UK's working population now accesses social media while at work, with a third of those (roughly six million) spending more than 30 minutes on the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Myspace.
Worryingly many employees polled were in denial about the ill-effects of social media on their efficiency at work.
Only 14% of respondents admitted to being less productive as a result of social media and 10% even claimed social media had made them more productive.
And there was widespread resistance to banning access to social networks at work, with more than two-thirds (68%) advocating some form of access during working hours. Only a third wanted sites like Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube barred during work time, demonstrating the growing importance of social media in Britons' daily routine and the widespread resistance to its access being limited.
Myjobgroup Managing Director Lee Fayer said: "Our results clearly show that UK workers are spending increased time while at work on social media networks, which, left unchecked, could have negative repercussions on the productivity of many companies across the country.
"While we're certainly not killjoys, people spending over an hour per day in work time on the likes of Facebook and Twitter are seriously hampering companies' efforts to boost productivity, which is more important than ever given the fragile state of our economy.
"Companies would do well to monitor use of social networking sites during work hours and ensure that their employees are not abusing their freedom of access to these sites."
Source: Recruitment Today