Professionals in the UK are much less aware of the power of social media for advancing their careers than their US counterparts, according to research by Scredible PLC.

The survey of 1,000 professionals aged between 20 and 45-years-old reveals only 22% of UK-based respondents see their social media profile as “very important” to their career in one year. This is compared to 48% in the US.

There is a similar transatlantic split when people were asked about how useful social media is for gathering information. Almost half (48%) of Americans believe they learn “a lot” from social media whereas only 29% of UK professionals share this view.

A separate section of the report drilled down deeper into the reasons behind British professionals’ reluctance to embrace social media in a work content. It revealed almost half (47%) believe there is too much “useless content” across the platforms.

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Almost one in three (29%) say they are too busy to update their accounts during the working day and 19% are concerned about their employers thinking negatively about their social media output and how it represents them. More than one-third (38%) also see it as a distraction at work and believe it should be banned.

In the US three-quarters of people think having a good social media profile is good for their career progression – compared to 57% in the UK. Scredible CEO Colin Lucas-Mudd said that throughout the report there are signs of “major barriers preventing businesses benefitting from professionals’ use of social media”.

“Many UK workers share concerns over how hard it is to find good content, the time required to sift through spam, and worries their employers’ perception of using social media,” he continued.

“As social media rapidly moves into the #1 slot, both as a marketing and support tool, this is a disaster in the making in terms of global competitiveness. Further, as it becomes more important than ever for professionals to fully understand ‘social’ as a learning and development tool, educational opportunities are being lost and career prospects dimmed.”

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