According to the new book Groundswell (Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff, Harvard Business Press), social networking sites will have a profound effect on how consumers engage with each other and how corporations will need to leverage Web 2.0 to market their products and services.

THE DATA

The TrendScan survey by Syntel, a leading U.S.-based IT and Knowledge Process Outsourcing company, was conducted between March 3, 2008 and April 14, 2008. Syntel regularly polls Fortune 1000 companies to track the forces driving global IT trends and issues.

The survey asked, “A great deal of media attention is being paid to digital networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Spoke, and Xing. Are you active on these networking sites? ”

SYNTEL ’S VIEW

“It ’s clear that technology is delivering new methods for IT professionals, and the rest of the world, to communicate, network and entertain themselves, ” says Bharat Desai, Syntel Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. “It ’s not surprising that technology savvy professionals would be early adopters of the latest options. ”

“The next step is to find ways to apply the social media experience among IT professionals in a meaningful way that shares technical knowledge as well as a sense of community. Forward-thinking organizations will embrace, rather than try to fight, these new social networking sites as a means to better engage their consumers. ”