UK businesses are still struggling to get to grips with the marketing potential of social media, with very few managing their reputations effectively online, according to new research.
The results of a study by digital marketing agency Quba revealed that 91% of respondents thought that the perception of their brand online was important, yet only 20% of the companies questioned actually maintained a regular blog.
The survey highlighted the widespread misunderstanding that businesses had about social media and social networking, with many companies believing that they should do more to make use of them as marketing tools or risk losing out on some mythical pot of gold.
Nearly half of the companies surveyed had never bothered to check whether negative comments posted about them online had impacted on their business.
What's more, of those companies that actually did check the internet to find out what people were saying about them, only 36% took the opportunity to build a positive online profile by responding to comments and posts.
In light of the hype surrounding Web 2.0, it is clear that most businesses are fully aware of the PR potential of social media tools as such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, but as yet few companies have mastered the best way to use them effectively.
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