Business communications to use social networking, claims Gartner

Posted by Jessie Richards

Companies are expected to include more social media in their communications strategies in the coming years, IT outsourcing users have been told.

A report from IT industry analyst Gartner claimed that social networking tools will replace email as the main communication application for 20 per cent of firms by 2014.

The organisation predicted that this change will be driven by new working styles, employee demographics and the greater availability of social media.

In addition, the research said that more companies will allow their workers to access social networking platforms for business use, while some could even start to develop their in-house platforms.

Matt Cain, research vice president at Gartner, commented: "The rigid distinction between email and social networks will erode. Email will take on many social attributes, such as contact brokering while social networks will develop richer email capabilities."

Last year, the 2010 Threat Predictions report from McAfee Labs said that social networking websites will become one of the preferred targets for hackers attempting to launch malware attacks.