Word of mouth and good, old-fashioned advertising rank ahead of social media for the marketing needs of the majority of small businesses, reveals a new study.

Hiscox surveyed 500 owners or partners of SMBs in the U.S. and discovered that just 35 percent of small businesses were actively using social media, which was less than half (79 percent) of those that were relying on word of mouth.

The poll also noted that IT/media services were twice as likely to use social media as repair shops (STOP THE PRESS!) and that almost one quarter (23 percent) of small businesses would use social media but aren’t sure how or don’t have the time.

One third (33 percent) of SMBs believe that social media is not useful for their business.

(Soure: Hiscox. SMB image via Shutterstock.)