Irish firms among biggest users of social media in EU

Irish businesses are among the biggest users of social media in the European Union, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.

The figures show nearly half of all Irish business that employ 10 people or more use social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and LinkedIn compared to an EU average of 30 per cent.

Malta has the highest percentage of companies using social media across the EU, at 55 per cent, while Latvia has the lowest at 15 per cent.

In terms of enterprises using social media, Ireland ranked third in the EU.

More than a third of the enterprises in Ireland said they used social media to develop their image or sell products, while 15 per cent of companies used the platforms to find new employees.

This compares with an EU-28 average of 22 per cent for developing the enterprise’s image and 9 per cent for the recruitment of employees.

Just 45 per cent large enterprises had e-commerce sales which accounted for 43 per cent of total sales of large enterprises. Amongst medium-sized businesses, 43 per cent had an ecommerce option accounting for 19 per cent of sales.