EQUTE — A new survey shows that 54 percent of employers completely prohibit the use of social networking sites completely.

CIOs were asked in the survey: Which of the following most closely describes your company’s policy on visiting social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter, while at work?” Here is how they responded:

“Using social networking sites may divert employees’ attention away from more pressing priorities, so it’s understandable that some companies limit access,” said Dave Willmer, executive director of Robert Half Technology. “For some professions, however, these sites can be leveraged as effective business tools, which may be why about one in five companies allows their use for work-related purposes.”

So what does this mean for marketers? If you’re targeting a big company with your Facebook ads, make sure employees can see them. Perhaps turn them off until after the work day ends to get the most efficient use of your money.

An now some information on the study from Robert Half Technology:

The national survey was developed by Robert Half Technology, a leading provider of IT professionals on a project and full-time basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. The survey is based on more than 1,400 telephone interviews with CIOs from a random sample of U.S. companies with 100 or more employees. In order for the survey to be statistically representative, the sample was stratified by geographic region, industry and number of employees. The results were then weighted to reflect the proper proportions of the number of employees within each region. The margin of error for this study is +/- 2.6 percent at the 95 percent level of confidence.