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Major U.S. trucking companies are now widely using social media, but not as much as other business-to-business firms, according to a new study by trucking technology supplier Carrier Logistics Inc.

The study found that 68 of the 100 companies on the Transport Topics list of the largest U.S. and Canadian for-hire carriers currently have a presence on social media.

Of those companies, 80% have a Facebook page, 72% use LinkedIn and 64% use Twitter or Google+, while 59% use YouTube.

“The time has come when transportation companies can no longer afford not to be on social media,” said Ken Weinberg, vice president and co-founder of CLI. “If you want to be in the trucking business today, you need a presence on social media to secure your place in the industry.”

Companies could become more aware of the value of social media as they begin to track how many people are following them on those sites and how many leads they’re generating, said Gary Snyder, business development manager for CLI, which conducted the study.

“More and more, it’s starting to be measured,” Snyder said.

Among the carriers using Twitter, 70% tweeted at least once per week. For the companies with Facebook pages, 63% updated them weekly. That figure was only 26% for LinkedIn, however.

Although more than two-thirds of the carriers on the for-hire TT100 are using social media, that level of adoption lags behind the average business-to-business company, Snyder said.

He referred to data from Clearpoint Agency, a public relations and marketing firm, showing that 87% of business-to-business companies across all industries use social media.

CLI’s study did not directly address how trucking companies are using social media, but Weinberg said it’s a way for carriers to communicate with both drivers and shipper customers to share company developments as well as generate sales leads.

Right now, large carriers have the resources to maintain a social-media presence, but small carriers often don’t have the staff hours to do so, Weinberg said.

However, he predicted that social media will become ubiquitous in the transportation industry, much like company websites are today.

“Wherever we turn, social media is creeping into the workspace,” Weinberg told TT.