Businesses warming to social media. A new survey on the use of social media has revealed that he number of CIOs and IT Directors in the US and Europe are blocking fewer social media applications than previously. The new research, KillerApps 2013, was released on 8 October by Easynet Global Services and Ipanema Technologies and reveals that businesses are blocking fewer social media applications when compared to last year. For the most well-known social media sites, the survey shows that in 2013: Facebook remained blocked in 52% of companies (as opposed to 67% in 2012), YouTube by 43% (compared to 60% in 2012), Twitter by 43% (50% in 2012) and LinkedIn by 21% (18% in 2012). All online television or video remains blocked in 42% of companies (50% in 2012) and private e-mails (such as Hotmail or Gmail) are blocked by 25% of companies (32% in 2012). At a global level, it is clear that the blocking of social media is taking place more often in the US where, for example, 69% of companies are still preventing Facebook access for their workers and 65% of them prevent access to YouTube. Access to LinkedIn is, on the other hand, more frequent in the US than in Europe. According to Thierry Grenot, Executive Vice-President of Ipanema Technologies, “social media offers great benefits for business so the trend of IT leaders to relax their controls is likely to be welcomed. The challenge for those IT departments now though is to ensure that social media traffic is managed effectively” and enterprise networks are not oversaturated. (IL/transl.fl)