Six out of 10 companies include social media as part of their overall commercial strategy, but only about a third use it specifically to generate sales, according to a survey of 300 businesses by the Bord Gáis Energy Social Media Awards.

Brand awareness and customer engagement are the main reasons firms use social media, the survey found.

But just a third of companies surveyed regularly measured the success of their social media activity, with another third quantifying its effectiveness on an ad hoc basis. Some 40 per cent admitted they did not attempt to evaluate it at all.

When it comes to the often high-wire act of interacting with customers online, 64 per cent of businesses allow users to log in using their existing social media profiles.

However, 20 per cent ask people to create a specific account with their company (in other words, requiring the creation of a username and password).

Some 44 per cent said the head of their organisation was on Twitter – the other 56 per cent could always be professional lurkers, of course. Meanwhile, 36 per cent of firms using social media said it paid off in terms of added sales.