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.
Discover why countless investors and businessmen, including the Winklevoss twins, are becoming big supporters of virtual currencies at Inside Bitcoins on July 30 in New York. You'll hear from speakers like Charlie Shrem, Vice Chairman at Bitcoin Foundation, who runs one of the largest alternative payment companies. Every paid registrant will receive a Bitcoin paper wallet with 0.01 Bitcoin. Register before Thursday and save.
Nine out of ten small businesses now dedicate time to networking online using social media and other channels, and almost three-quarters (74 percent) of these firms find online networking as, if not more valuable than networking in person, reveals a new study.
Manta polled more than 600 small business owners across the U.S. about their use of online and social channels, and discovered that more than half (53 percent) said that networking on and offline was equally valuable, and that 42 percent of small firms said that a quarter of customers gained over the past year had come from online channels.
Small and medium-sized brands across the U.S. are struggling to implement social media into their business model, reports eMarketer, citing a study from SMB Group.
Less than a quarter (24 percent) of small businesses – defined as those with between 24 and 99 employees – said that they currently used social media in a “strategic and structured way”, and, overall, just 12 percent have an active company Twitter profile.
In recent weeks we’ve seen a lot of information analyzing how small businesses are using Twitter and Facebook, sometimes with conflicting results. For example, while some studies suggest that just 10 percent of small businesses are using Twitter, others are reporting that 60 percent are finding Twitter effective for marketing and customer engagement.
Well, brace yourselves, as this new study from SocialStrategy1 and OfficeArrow is going to make those waters even murkier, as it suggests that while 88 percent of small business owners believe that platforms such as Twitter and Facebook do or will impact their bottom line, a full two-thirds (67 percent) won’t be making additional investments in their social media marketing in 2012.
The social media revolution is well and truly upon us, but some small business owners are still struggling with integrating these tools into their marketing and sales campaigns.
Social media marketing firm iContact polled more than 1,000 small business owners on how they used and rated Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and Groupon. Facebook led all platforms by approval, but one in four of the businesses surveyed don’t use social media at all.
Tap into our vast network of talented social media pros.
Post a risk-free job listing
Shea Bennett
Editor
Allison Stadd
Contributor
Lauren Dugan
Contributor
Nadine Cheung
Editor, The Job Post
home | site map | advertising/sponsorships | about us | careers | contact us | help
courses | browse jobs | freelancers | events | forums | content | member benefits | reprints & permissions
about | terms of use | privacy policy
Copyright © 2013 Mediabistro Inc. call (212) 389-2000 or email us
AllTwitter Twitter feed loading...