Contractors should engage with social media in order to gain and retain clients, one expert has said.

Tim Gibbon, director at Elemental Communications, said that social media has seen a massive spike as the business benefits of utilising the area of online marketing became apparent.

It is essential that brands maintain an ethical and successful rapport with their audiences, while ensuring their style and tone are typical of the business.

"Socially driven environments as previously mentioned now offer more ways for brands to have these two-way dialogues on a level that was never experienced before," Mr Gibbon explained.

"It should be approached as a tool that should be incorporated into above, below and through-the-line marketing in a seamless fashion, not managed in silo."

This comes after Jake Hird, senior research analyst at Econsultancy, said that IT contractors and other web users will continue to use Google unless the company make a massive change that the public does not like.