Twitter, Facebook Scrutinized as Enterprises Crack Down on Social Media

The social behemoth Facebook may be feeling the affects of limited access imposed on employees while using the Web at work, according to Zscaler s Q1 2012 “State of the Internet” report, which provides insights into how users access the Web and what they do on the Web. The report found Facebook traffic continues to decline as a percent of total social transactions in the enterprise, while Twitter continues to increase.

That said, Facebook still has a commanding lead and accounted for over 40 percent of Web application transactions in the enterprise, followed by Gmail (18 percent), YouTube (8 percent) and Twitter (7 percent). The next most popular app (MSN Messenger) had less than 2.4 percent share. Mobile browsing, while a smaller percentage of the overall enterprise traffic handled, continues to rise. Blackberry and Android traffic declined as a percent. Apple iOS had the highest usage and ended the quarter accounting for over 50 percent of the mobile browser traffic observed, according to the report.

Despite its dominance, Facebook continues shows a continual decline in the percentage of transactions. Facebook accounted for 40.54 percent of Web applications in the enterprise in March 2012, down from 41.72 percent in January 2012 and down from over 52 percent in Q1 2011.

LinkedIn also declined in Q1 2012 (from 1.55 percent in the same period last year to 1.45 percent). However, Twitter transactions increased from 7.05 percent of all enterprise Web app transactions in Q1 2011 to 7.44 percent in Q1 2012. A significant reason for the declines enterprises appear to have been increasingly limiting access to Facebook but have been less concerned about Twitter, the report noted.

To read the original eWeek article, click here: Twitter Rises, Facebook Falls as Enterprise Cracks Down on Social Media