A recent survey conducted by The Creative Group found Facebook is the social network of choice of creative professionals, with LinkedIn and Google+ ranking second and third, respectively.

"Those in the creative industry tend to blend their professional and personal lives, including interactions they have online," said Donna Farrugia, executive director of The Creative Group.  "Social media profiles have become an important branding and marketing tool for creative professionals."

Fifty-six percent of survey respondents said they would choose Facebook if they could only choose one social network, while only 4 percent said they would choose Twitter. Despite the results from the survey, students pursuing a marketing degree still need to be savvy in the use of many social networks and businesses are building a bigger presence on a variety of such websites.

Recent research from the The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth found social media is overtaking blogging as a communication tool of choice for enterprises, and social media is being integrated into the infrastructure of many

companies

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, texting, downloadable mobile apps and Foursquare have contributed to the decline of blogging, message boards, video blogging, podcasting and MySpace, said the study.