A newly published Bayt.com report revealed that the majority of respondents are unsatisfied with the way companies are utilizing social networks. Bayt.com, the leading job site in the Middle East, surveyed over 15 thousand individuals from 12 MENA countries on social media usage within organizations and came up with key stats on the region. Here is a quick summary of the findings:

The Good

43.3% of respondents rate their company’s social media strategy “Excellent”.

38.2% say that their companies managed to convert fans to customers “to a large extent" using social media.

60.2% think that the number of companies that use social media will increase dramatically within a year.

Everyone’s eager to lend a hand: a staggering 86.1% say that they are willing to participate in their company’s social media activities if they get a chance.

The Bad

Only half the companies use social media.

While most were happy with their company’s social strategy, the majority expressed a negative outlook on social media’s corporate usage in general in the Middle East: 46.8% consider it ineffective.

The survey also showed that social strategies are unbalanced with the majority of companies concentrating almost exclusively on one network and neglecting the others. 65.5% of respondents say that their company “mostly” uses Facebook; in contrast only 3.4% cited Twitter as a main channel. Additionally, only 4.2% said that they use a combination of social networks with equal emphasis.

27.9% of respondents said that their company rarely updates its social media pages.

Where It Can Get Ugly

More than 62% of respondents have indicated that all employees are either extremely or moderately involved in their company’s social media activities. But it also appears that less than half of those companies provide social media guidelines for all employees.

Adding to the mix, 81.6% said that social media can destroy a company’s reputation.