Visiting social networks such as Facebook or Twitter except for clear business reasons is discouraged or outlawed outright at a majority of US workplaces, a recent survey of chief information officers (CIOs) suggests.

More than half (54%) of the CIOs interviewed said their firms do not allow employees to visit social networking sites for any reason whatsoever while at work. Another 19% said such visits were allowed for business purposes only.

The survey was developed by Robert Half Technology and conducted by an independent research firm. It was based on telephone interviews with more than 1,400 CIOs from US companies with 100 or more employees.

One Key Question

CIOs were asked, "Which of the following most closely describes your company's policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter, while at work?" Their responses are given in the table below:

"Using social networking sites may divert employees' attention away from more pressing priorities, so it's understandable that some companies limit access," said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology. "For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes."

About the data: The national survey was developed by Robert Half Technology and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of US companies with 100 or more employees. In order for the survey to be statistically representative, the sample was stratified by geographic region, industry and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportions of the number of employees within each region.