Small Business Boom in Social Media
Like with many other small/local business owners you’re probably wondering whether investing in a social strategy would be worth the time any money? After all who has the budget of brands like Coca-Cola, Nike, and Starbucks? With lots of media attention on Facebook and Twitter, these social networks seem hard to resist but present a daunting challenge ahead.
There are promising times ahead for small businesses that are willing to commit to a social media strategy.
Top Benefits for Small Business Owners
The graph below (click to enlarge) shows a range of benefits identified by all marketers. We see:
- Increased exposure (88%)
- Increased traffic/subscribers (72%)
- Improved search ranking (62%)
- New business partnerships (56%)
- Generated qualified leads (51%)
- Reduced overall marketing expense (49%)
- Improve sales (43%)
The Power Of Endurance
Time is a key factor in social media success. The question is, how much time?
- The marketers with 3 or more years of experience show the greatest results, with 80% seeing improved results, although around 1/4 of businesses see generated leads within 1 year!
- On a short scale, the consistent effort required each week is only 6 hours. You are twice as likely to see leads generated than those who spend 5 hours or fewer per week.
Tools Of The Trade
With a wide variety of social networks to choose from and an endless selection of tools/analytics, what are the generic tools that every marketer must have in their tool kit?
- Almost all marketers use four different networks: Facebook, Twitter, Linked In and blogs.
There is no doubt that social media will play an increasing role in small and large business operations, after all, Facebook has a community greater than 500 million in all corners of the globe. With the rapid advancement in technology and mobile, social interconnectivity will become more prominent.