Yerevan/Mediamax/. Only 34% of businesses are using social media in Armenia, Grant Thornton\'s International Business Report (IBR) reads.

The research reveals that 43% of businesses globally use social media in some capacity. Businesses in emerging economies have stolen a march on their western counterparts in the use of social media However, this rises to 53% in Latin America and 50% in the BRIC economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China).

The results also indicate that globally, advertising is the most common reason companies use social media (53%), followed by communicating with customers (51%) and recruitment (43%).

Advertising is the most common use in Armenia (28%), followed by recruitment (10%) and with no responses collected on communication with customers.

The IBR also indicates that despite the rapid proliferation of new media, newspapers remain the preferred source of information to business owners.

Globally, four in five read a newspaper at least three times a week. This is also true in Armenia with 76% of respondent businessmen confirming that they read a newspaper regularly. In addition, newspapers, both hardcopy and online, are still the preferred source of news in Armenia  (66%), followed by television news with 21%.