100 employees earning an average salary of $25k who spend 20 minutes a day on non-work-related social media can cost a company over $50k annually

Boston, MA and Galway, Ireland - March 1st 2011 - SpamTitan Technologies, the makers of the powerful yet easy-to-manage web filtering solution WebTitan, today presented its Social Media Cost Calculator. The new tool becomes available as SpamTitan releases the results of its latest customer research which shows that 76 per cent of customers feel under pressure to allow access to more Web 2.0 tools in the workplace.

The WebTitan social media cost calculator is a tool to help Human Resource (HR) professionals better understand the cost implications of social networking in the office, allowing them to approximate an annual cost of this activity to the business based on average salary. The Social Media Cost Calculator can be used by HR or IT to assist in creating a business case for expenditure on productivity measures such as web filtering tools, based on potential savings.

The true cost of social networking in the office is of real concern to businesses. A 2010 survey of 1000 employees by MyJobGroup found that among those who use sites such as Facebook, Twitter and Myspace at work, one-third are spending more than 30 minutes a day and almost 6 per cent spend more than an hour. Such potential for lost productivity has major cost implications, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). A simple, straight forward way to calculate the cost could make all the difference to employers' efforts at staying in control.

"The need for businesses to ensure social networking activity in the workplace is responsible and productive is fast becoming a major HR issue," said SpamTitan Technologies' CEO Ronan Kavanagh. "Our Social Media Cost Calculator is one way for IT to give visibility and in turn help HR exercise more control over the proper use of Web 2.0 so that these tools can safely play their part in bringing benefits to the business.

Social media has become part of everyday life with nearly a billion people worldwide using some type of social networking site. According to the WebTitan Social Media Cost Calculator, if every employee spent just 20 minutes a day on non-work related social media activity it would cost a company with 100 employees on an average salary of $25k more than $50,000 a year. With this visibility comes a greater understanding which can be immensely helpful in allowing HR, management and I.T. to control how social media is used in the workplace.

‘Having clear visibility of internet usage across the organisation has been an invaluable aid to determining our internet usage policy," said Tony Dervan, HR Manager, EssentialSkillz. "Some of our employees need access to social networking as part of their job but many do not. Using the social media cost calculator has allowed us to manage internet productivity much more accurately."

It is important that you choose the web filtering solution that is right for your organisation's needs," said Ronan Kavanagh. "By working with IT, HR can help guide the company to safe internet use that is controlled but not blanket banned and where the organisation can safely embrace and reap the benefits of business Web 2.0 tools."