"Imagine the hours that would be wasted if we take the 'no training' approach to tax and audit," MacQuarrie wrote in the survey's summary. With employees figuring out how to use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter on their own, the result is often an inconsistent marketing message. MacQuarrie runs the SocialMedia CPAs website which has blogs, articles and resources about the trends in this arena. He is director of technology for the KAF Financial Group, based in Braintree, Mass.

About 65 percent of respondents get no help from their firms, which is better than the roughly 72 percent left on their own according to the 2010 survey. On the other hand, 70 percent of respondents use social media to connect with business contacts, a rise from about 63 percent last year. There were 650 respondents to the 2011 survey, a 25-percent increase from the prior year.

The highest level of training reported was for those received one to two hours of instruction in a year. That was about 23 percent of the population, up from 22 percent. Another 8 percent received three to five hours of training about 4 percent had more than five hours.

When asked how much they use social media, about 45 percent use them four to five hours weekly, up from 42 percent a year ago. Another 26  percent use them one hour or less per week, down from 41 percent in 2010. That drop probably reflects respondents whose use became more frequent. Around 19 percent reported six to 10 hours weekly usage, an increase from 13 percent last year. Another 9 percent reported 10 hours or more, up from 5 percent in that use category in 2010.

The heaviest period of usage is weekday evenings, about 49 percent, and 30 percent reporting their peak as weekday mornings, probably reflecting those who turn to social media after work or when they arrive at work each morning. Just over 10 percent report peak use on weekday afternoons, and 7 percent primarily use weekday lunch hours for this purpose. Most are turning to other activities on the weekends as only 15 percent cited this as the peak period of use.

The most used services, starting from the most used are LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter with Twitter still apparently confounding people. Forty-five percent of respondents have no plans to use it. LinkedIn is used by 91 percent of those responding, Facebook by 80 percent and YouTube by about 51 percent. Forty percent use Twitter and it showed the largest percentage increase in users of all the services.