USA: A majority (79 percent) of information technology (IT) professionals use social networking sites such as Facebook and YouTube, but one fifth of them (21 percent) do not use social networking sites at all, according to a recent CompTIA survey titled Information and Social Media Use Among IT Professionals.

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Of the major social networking sites, Facebook was the most popular, with 57 percent of survey respondents indicating that they had been active on the site within the 30 days prior to taking the survey. Following Facebook, YouTube was the second most popular site (53 percent), then MySpace (29 percent), Twitter (25 percent) and LinkedIn (22 percent).

Most IT professionals (71 percent) visited these sites solely for personal purposes and 22 percent participated for a mix of personal and professional reasons. Only seven percent engaged in social networking solely for work purposes.

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"It isn't surprising that IT professionals tend to regard social networking as a personal rather than a professional pursuit," said Ed Korenman, vice president, global marketing and communications, CompTIA. "However, their use of work related online discussion forums and virtual communities suggests that professional collaboration is taking place outside of social networking sites."

The survey found IT professionals actively participate in more work-related online communities and discussion forms than non-work related groups. Among those who participate in online communities and forums, the majority (58 percent) indicate they do so to find answers to their questions and 46 percent say they do to share information with their colleagues.

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According to the study, expert advice was the most highly-desired feature of an online community with 48 percent rating it as a "must-have" feature. A two-way idea exchange was the second most popular feature (40 percent), followed by a directory (39 percent).

Lack of interest (53 percent) was the most common reason cited for not engaging with online communities or forums, followed by lack of need (51 percent), lack of time (38 percent) and lack of value (28 percent). Poor layout or organization (52 percent), lack of relevant new content (52 percent) and too much sales oriented content (52 percent) were the most common reasons given for leaving or limiting participation in an online community.

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"Like most professionals, IT workers look for proven and efficient ways to get the information they need to do their jobs," said Korenman. "That may be why IT professionals look first to more traditional information sources like mainstream media and industry newsletters."

When asked what online sources they use for work-related news and information, IT professionals indicated that they rely most heavily on email, with 63 percent reading emailed news alerts on a daily or weekly basis.

Electronic newsletters were the second most popular daily or weekly news resource (59 percent), followed by major mainstream media news sites (56 percent) and industry-specific niche news sites (53 percent). Half of the IT professionals surveyed do not check blogs (49 percent) or subscribe to research or consulting sites (49 percent) for industry news.