A social media report by KPMG said that adoption rates of social media are averaging around 70% across the board in industry sectors. This is a clear indication that social media continues its climb up the boardroom agenda.
Over 57% of business managers said they were either in the process of initiating or expanding plans to use social media as a tool for developing new products or services.
The increasing interest in social media investment amongst companies could also mean that they might claim all social media happenings in the workplace. This is the case for Noah Kravitz, a blogger based in California. He is being sued by his former employer, Phonedog, for not handing over his Twitter account once he left the company.
Back in 2008, a recruitment consultant, Mark Ions, was ordered by a British court to give the rights to his LinkedIn account to his former employer, Hays. The court ruled that information of a confidential nature was collected during his work and that the company deserved to have full access of his account.
Could this be potential trouble for personal social media accounts used for work purposes?
Clearly social media is gaining a reputation of being a cost-effective marketing channel. If social networking continues to become more developed and accepted in the next few years, companies may view all social media related activity and networking as their rightful property.
This could mean social media users will have to start making clear distinctions between personal and work related social networking.
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