Fifty-six percent of our carrier executive respondents said their organization has a social media strategist, compared to only 45 percent of the hi-tech vendors.

As for social network usage, 14 percent of carrier execs update Facebook hourly, and 42 percent daily. For vendors, only 11 percent update Facebook hourly and 36 percent daily.

Finally, 23 percent of the carrier responses indicated social networking had resulted in increased revenue for their organizations, while only 17 percent of vendor respondents said so.

Carriers favor Android (40 percent Android, 28 percent Apple), while hi-tech vendors like the iPhone better (37 percent Apple vs. 32 percent Android). Carriers might like the more open platform, and senior execs have been on the hustings arguing for more mobile phone interoperability (see this).

The operators' favorite social network is Facebook (44 percent Facebook, 38 percent LinkedIn), while more vendors use LinkedIn (49 percent LinkedIn, 35 percent Facebook). One possible explanation is that, in my experience, carrier execs, especially those who plan and operate the carrier infrastructure, live in a more tightly controlled environment and might not be encouraged to share on LinkedIn with competitors and the industry. They might be doing private network sharing with family and friends on Facebook.