Social media making big inroads at agencies

Nearly half of the senior government employees who responded to a recent survey — 46 percent — are allowed to access social media websites at work, up from 20 percent a year ago, according to the survey released today by Market Connections.

The most popular site was Facebook, which was accessed by 54 percent, including 20 percent who visit the site at least once a day. The next most popular sites were YouTube, visited by 34 percent; LinkedIn, 18 percent; Twitter, 9 percent; MySpace, 6 percent; Flickr, 5 percent; GovLoop, 5 percent; and GovTwit, 2 percent.

Forty-five percent of the respondents said they use Facebook for work and personal reasons, while 49 percent said they only use Facebook for personal reasons.

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The most common work-related reasons for accessing Facebook are research, cited by 26 percent; communication with colleagues, 26 percent; communication with the public, 17 percent; communication with other agencies, 8 percent; and recruitment, 4 percent.

Market Connections, in conjunction with TMP Government, surveyed more than 2,600 senior federal employees at both defense and civilian agencies from November 2010 to January. The employees were selected from subscription lists of more than a dozen top federal trade publications, including Federal Computer Week, along with databases from trade and professional associations and other third parties.

The surveyed workers covered a range of job functions, ranks, purchasing responsibilities and demographics.

The survey also showed that 64 percent of respondents access e-mail on laptop PCs, 28 percent on BlackBerrys, 14 percent on iPhones and 11 percent on Android smart phones.

The respondents access news sites from mobile devices as well, including 14 percent who use BlackBerrys to do so, 11 percent who use iPhones and 9 percent who use Android phones.