Dublin, 4 February 2010. Aisling Foley Marketing has conducted research into the usage of Twitter among Irish software companies. The results show that, as yet, very few companies have jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon.

Of the 26% of Irish software companies that do have a Twitter account, only half are in active use. And, only 10 companies (3.5% of total) have an active Twitter presence and promote it via the company website.

“I knew the numbers would be low, because in general, Irish, SME, B2B companies haven’t figured out a social media strategy yet,” said Aisling Foley, Director, Aisling Foley Marketing. “But I do think it’s important for companies to, at the very least, set up Twitter and Facebook accounts in order to choose the best name as a lot of names are taken. After this, companies can then think about the best ways to use those accounts.”

The research was conducted between December 2009 and January 2010 among 289 Irish-owned software companies. 74% of the companies are Dublin-based, with the remainder outside of Dublin, but within the Republic of Ireland.

Aisling warns,

“Companies which aren’t actively using their Twitter accounts and tracking followers need to be careful. A lot of these non active accounts have unwanted types of followers. There can be a lot of spam on Twitter, so it’s important to check your followers regularly to block the inappropriate ones.”

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This article appeared in the following publications:

• Silicon Republic
• Digital Times
• Business and Leadership