The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks: Social Media's Impact on Business and Decision-Making

A great deal of attention and research have been devoted over the last few years to evangelizing social media as a new form of customer-centric relationship building. Building a network or using social media to deepen customer intimacy has become the mantra of today. However, what is often overlooked is the impact of social media to change behaviors, and the potential to use social media to impact a professional's decision-making processes. While everyone is endeavoring to capture the mindshare of the buyer, few understand what success truly looks like. In an effort to begin to better understand the impact of social media on business, we conducted research to examine the role that social media has on decision-making among business professionals.