Business leaders are failing to promote social media use in their organisations because they still don’t understand its value, according to 41% of respondents to a new survey. Meanwhile, two thirds (61%) felt their bosses saw social media tools as a source of wasted time.

The majority of UK workers in large organisations (seven out of 10) still don’t have any access to social networking sites like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

Lars Hyland of Brightwave, the company behind the poll, said: “UK businesses are missing out on a huge opportunity to cost-effectively build knowledge and understanding, as well as engagement, across large volumes of employees in different locations.

“Business leaders must be informed about the real opportunities in applying social networks to business, otherwise they risk alienating their highly networked current and future talent in today’s global workforce.”