Firms boosted by social networking

Workspace provider Regus questioned over 17,000 managers and business owners across 80 countries, including over 4,000 respondents in the UK.

Nearly a third of firms in Yorkshire (31 per cent) devote up to 20 per cent of their marketing budget to business social networking activity and nearly half (49 per cent) encourage their employees to join business networks.

Two thirds of Yorkshire firms agreed that without social media activity their marketing initiatives cannot hope to be successful. Nevertheless, firms also emphasised the need for a balance of marketing media with a combination of traditional and digital techniques.

Greg Lunn, regional director at Regus, said: “Social networking has finally come into its own in the commercial world, and it seems firms in Yorkshire are keeping up to speed with this trend, with particular success in recruiting new customers.”