International companies are failing to gain the full potential from social media and exploit the business opportunities presented. Research carried out by software maker Satmetrix pointed at the B2B sector as being particularly poor in identifying the advantages of social media as well as the risks in using the medium.

The research showed that over half of B2B businesses had no means of identifying conservations about their business on social media while 75 percent did not analyse social media activity surrounding their brand. B2C performed only slightly better with 55 percent failing to respond back to customer feedback on social platforms.

Richard Owen, CEO at Satmetrix, said “companies running the risk of losing customers by not addressing their issues shared online, but they are also walking past the opportunity to capitalise on positive comments made on the social web.”