Sixty-five percent of business professionals are logging on to social networking sites to connect not only with peers, but with colleagues and customers, as well. This is according to a survey by the Institute for Corporate Productivity, Inc. (i4cp – formerly HRI), conducted in conjunction with HR.com.

"We expected to see a number of respondents utilizing social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook for personal reasons, but we were intrigued at the high percentage of business professionals that use social networking for professional purposes," says Jay Jamrog, i4cp's senior vice president of research. "In an age where more and more employees work remotely and people frequently change companies, it makes sense that the business community would turn to the Web to stay connected."

According to i4cp's survey, which analyzed data from 323 organizations, the most popular site by far was LinkedIn, which targets business professionals. But Yahoo!, 360, and MySpace were right behind in popularity. MySpace, especially, is more often associated with a younger generation. This perception, perhaps perpetuated by mainstream news media, makes the study's findings all the more noteworthy.

Employees are using these and other social networks for traditional business uses. The study reveals that about half (52%) of respondents whose organizations use social networking sites do so to keep internal staff and remote employees connected. Just under half (47%) of respondents use the networks to connect with potential clients and to showcase their skills. A total of 35% say they use networks as a tool to find jobs.

Organizations as a whole are benefiting as well—by gaining knowledge. More than half (55%) of those using the networks do so to share best practices with colleagues, and almost as many (49%) use them to get answers to issues they are currently facing.

Of those respondents who do not currently utilize social networks, the top reason (37%) is simply that they don't know what networks to use. A slight majority of respondents (59%) say they would likely use social networks if they knew that such use would assist their professional development (31% say they already do), and a full 77% would welcome using them if they thought the networks could aid organizational efficiency.