CIOs ‘overlooking news-gathering potential of social media’

Chief information officers (CIOs) are yet to fully accept the role social media can play in consuming information on industry news and corporate communications.

This is the conclusion of a recent survey by Rocket, which showed that only 27 percent of CIOs consider Facebook to be a key place for gathering this information, with this figure falling to 26 percent for Twitter and 17 percent for LinkedIn.

By contrast, 42 percent of those polled consider supplier websites important in this regard, while the proportion stands at 37 percent for webinars and 35 percent for IT publications.

Meanwhile, only one in five CIOs said social media was in their top three most influential channels for buying tech products.

Samuel Hall, EMEA corporate communications director for technology firm Oracle, said: "Pockets of best practice clearly exist, but it looks like there is still some way to go for widespread adoption. However, I still believe comms is in the right place to drive the conversation."

Earlier this week, David Jones, boss of global agency Havas, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that social media is revolutionising the advertising industry, making it more "open and collaborative" than ever.