LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and social networking in general are argued by some to have tangible business benefits, but are these communication channels nothing more than a business risk gateway or do they have the potential to deliver a real and positive impact upon total Return on Investment (ROI)? Leading research and advisory company Gartner predicts social networking will overtake email by 2014. A Manpower survey in January 2010 indicated that only 20% of companies worldwide have a social media policy. In the first six months of 2010 the number of LinkedIn members grew by 40% to 70 million; Twitter grew to 190 million users; and around 250 million people log into Facebook every day.40 per cent of businesses globally have successfully used social media for business development, according to a new survey by Regus. According to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg "...people are a lot more relaxed about online privacy than they used to be. Attitudes have changed and people have 'opened up on the web' as they share information about themselves on social networking sites..." Although this action creates personal privacy risks, the real issue arises when users take this approach with them to work and are equally 'open' in a business environment.

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