A survey asked Americans who are employed full- or part-time about eight different ways they might use social media while on the job and found that:
- 34% ever use social media while at work to take a mental break from their job
- 27% to connect with friends and family while at work
- 24% to make or support professional connections
- 20% to get information that helps them solve problems at work
- 17% to build or strengthen personal relationships with coworkers
- 17% to learn about someone they work with
- 12% to ask work-related questions of people outside their organization
- 12% to ask such questions of people inside their organization
Workers whose companies have policies regulating social media use at work are less likely to use social media in certain ways:
- 30% of workers whose companies have an at-work social media policy say they use social media while on the job to take a break from work, compared with 40% of workers whose employers do not have such policies.
- 20% of workers whose employers have at-work social media policies say they use social media to stay connected to family and friends while on the job, compared with 35% of workers whose social media use is not regulated at work.
- Only 16% of workers whose companies regulate social media at work say they use social media while working to get information that’s helpful to their job, compared with 25% of those whose workplaces have no such regulations.
A relatively modest share of workers say they have incorporated specific social media platforms into their day-to-day work lives:
- 19% of workers say they ever use Facebook for work-related purposes.
- 14% ever use LinkedIn for work-related purposes.
- 3% ever use Twitter for work-related purposes.
- 9% use a social media tool provided by their employer for work-related purposes.
- 5% use social media platforms other than the ones listed above for work-related purposes.