A new study from metrics monitoring company Evolv has found that people who use five or more social networks are actually better employees.
The research company measures hundreds of metrics for Fortune 500 companies and has found that hourly employees are actually more productive in general if they engage with a lot of social networking platforms.
The study found that hourly employees who use up to four social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, etc., actually make more sales and work better with customer service interactions.
Evolv also discovered that employees who use four or more networks stick around on average for 94 days of tenure. Non-social networking employees tend to leave after 83 days.
They also tend to stick around for longer (94 days of tenure with a company on average, compared to 83 days for those who shun social media).
Evolv also found that users who take advantage of five social networks are even better at converting sales and handling customer service. Although they are more productive users of five or more networks tend to leave their job after 92 days, perhaps because they are in higher demand.
Before you go to your boss with this case study keep in mind that Evolv believes more social networking could just be a sign of better computer literacy.
In at least one way the study makes sense, people who use social media throughout the day are likely to be better conversationalists and therefore better customer service representatives.
Do you think increased social media use can actually make for better employees?
This is interesting. I've worked for myself since long before social networking came along but I have found that social networking can have a mixed effect on my productivity.
I do think that it could make for a better employee, for the reasons mentioned, that it could give you an advantage with computers; as well as being able to communicate more efficiently. Interesting article.
I must be super productive then. I use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and Stumbleupon on a daily basis.
It's weird to think that social networking is actually tied to increased productivity– seems kind of counterintuitive. Also, 94 days on average? That doesn't seem like very long to me.