“This article presents recent statistics on the use of social media by enterprises in the European Union (EU) as part of their strategy for integrating information and communication technologies (ICT) in their business. Social media refer to internet based applications such as, for instance, social networks, blogs, multimedia content-sharing sites and wikis. In principle, enterprises use social media for image building or for marketing products but more generally in order to reach an audience in ways that the audience wants to be reached…Use of social media: highlights:

• Some 30 % of EU enterprises used social media (e.g. social networks, blogs, content-sharing sites and wikis) in 2013, with almost three out of four of these businesses (73 %) using such applications to build their image and to market products.
• Social networks were enterprises’ favourite form of social media.
• Half of EU enterprises that used social media, especially enterprises in the accommodation sector, reported using them to obtain customers’ opinions or reviews or to answer their questions.
• Among the enterprises that used social media, the size of the enterprise was not so important in determining whether the firm used social media to attract customers: 72 % of small enterprises used them for image building or for marketing products, compared with 79 % of large enterprises.”