It’s one thing to say that social media is good for a business, and another thing to take a close look at who in that business actually understands the benefits and uses of social tools.

This infographic explores social media adoption in enterprise level companies, taking a close look at executive and employee attitudes towards Twitter, Facebook and more.

Attensity – a social media analytics firm that was recently acknowledge by Twitter as one of its official Certified Products – created this infographic based on a survey of businesses in 2012 to determine their social media adoption. It explores the state of social within large organizations.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, those who “get” social are most often from the Generation X and Y demographic (29 percent) followed by senior management (27 percent). The percentage of middle managers who understand social drops to 18 percent, and it falls to less than 7 percent for consultants, customers, analysts and partners.

Despite less than a third of the workforce actually “getting” social media, companies do see the value in it – 83 percent of respondents disagreed with the statement that “social media only provides value to marketing, PR and advertising”, indicating that they see potential for social to influence sales, lead generation, customer service and other aspects of their business.

Take a look at the infographic below for more on enterprise barriers to adoption, opinions on whether social is a fad and more:

(Infographic courtesy of Attensity; Social media image via Shutterstock)