Results from a survey of 430 Fortune 1000 IT professionals in global companies show that 77 percent are regularly active on social networking sites, with 42 percent visiting more than three times weekly and 35 percent visiting at least once per week.

The data further suggests the rapid rate in which professionals of all ages, and not just teenagers, are harnessing these social sites to share information, network and better communicate.

According to the new book Groundswell (Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff, Harvard Business Press), social networking sites will have a profound effect on how consumers engage with each other and how corporations will need to leverage Web 2.0 to market their products and services.

The TrendScan survey by Syntel, a Troyibased IT and business process outsourcing company, was conducted between March 3 and April 14. Syntel regularly polls Fortune 1000 companies to track the forces driving global IT trends and issues.

The survey asked, “A great deal of media attention is being paid to digital networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Spoke, and Xing. Are you active on these networking sites?”

Responses:
 
* 42 percent replied "I am very active on social networking sites, frequenting them more than three times weekly."

* 35 percent replied "I am fairly active on social networking sites, frequenting them at least once per week."

* Only 22 percent replied "I am not active on social networking sites, frequenting them less than once per month."

“It’s clear that technology is delivering new methods for IT professionals, and the rest of the world, to communicate, network and entertain themselves,” said Syntel chairman and CEO Bharat Desai. “It’s not surprising that technology savvy professionals would be early adopters of the latest options. The next step is to find ways to apply the social media experience among IT professionals in a meaningful way that shares technical knowledge as well as a sense of community. Forward-thinking organizations will embrace, rather than try to fight, these new social networking sites as a means to better engage their consumers.”

More at www.syntelinc.com.