An online survey of travel management professionals conducted last month by AirPlus International revealed a connection between personal and professional use of social media sites. While more than 71 percent of respondents indicated that they personally participate in a social media platform and/or blog community, it’s encouraging to report that slightly more than 65 percent said that these sites could or already have added value to their business.

According to Nielsen’s “Global Faces and Networked Places” study released in March, 67 percent of Web users around the world are plugged into at least one social networking or blog site and one out of every 11 minutes spent online is dedicated to use of new media. Perhaps surprisingly, the fastest growing user group for new media sites as a whole is the 35 to 49 year olds, business travelers among them.

For more results, click here:

Airplus…The Wire May 2009 (PDF, 225KB)

Additional resources:
10 Social Media Travel Tools – Harvard Business Publishing
http://blogs.harvardbusiness.org/cs/2009/03/10_social_media_travel_tools.html

Business Travel Hooks Onto Web – gulfnews.com
http://archive.gulfnews.com/articles/09/04/29/10308554.htm

Social Networking’s New Global Footprint* — Nielsen Wire
http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/nielsen-news/social-networking-new-global-footprint/