The question is an important one: do companies in the Middle East and North Africa use social media effectively? If you're wondering about the answer to that, we have just released our latest infographic at Bayt.com, which sheds light on the challenges faced by companies on social media, how MENA professionals connect and interact with companies on social media, and more. The data in the infographic is taken from Bayt.com's 'Corporate Usage of Social Media in the Middle East’ poll (May 2012).

Some highlights:

• A majority of respondents (46.8%) believe that social media is not being used effectively by the region’s companies.

• Eight out of every ten respondents (81.6%) claim that the potential for social media to damage a company’s reputation is one of the biggest challenges to overcome.

• More than half of the respondents (51.1%) say that their company uses social media.

• Nine in ten (86.1%) respondents would participate in their company’s social media activities, if given the chance.

• A majority of respondents (39.1%) say that their company updates its social media pages once a day, compared to 27.9% who say that the social pages are rarely updated by their company.

•Almost of the respondents (47.6%) say they actively follow other companies along with their own on social media.

• The majority of respondents (29.8%) are looking for content on social media that is educational and informative. [Click on image for larger size]