UK executives slowest to recognise social networking opportunities

A report released today and previewed in the FT – Executives resist new medium – has shown that UK businesses had encountered far more resistance from their boards to invest in social networking. The UK was behind the US, Canada and (rather surprisingly) France. UK companies were at the “learning stage” whereas US companies had moved to the “experimentation” stage.

This is hot on the heels of news from Nielsen Ratings that Facebook users fell by 5% between Dec 07 and Jan 08.

I must admit that this finding fits with the reaction I get from the vast majority of UK executives I meet – particularly those over 40. They basically “don’t get it”. Indeed, I can’t recall another topic which has such a marked “generation gap”. It is extremely short-sighted for all the reasons I’ve banged on about for almost two years now. See some of my earlier posts like Business implications of Social Networking , The corporate side of Facebook or Facebook and the Social Networking phenomenon.