eMarketer reports on a new study of how small businesses are using social media and finds that the number has “plateaued” at about 24%. But the real interesting news is that of those who do social media marketing, two-thirds are getting results.
What kind of results? Mainly in loyalty and engagement – in other words, they are building better connections with existing customers. Getting new customers, however, is a little harder to accomplish (53% say that’s working for them).
Facebook and LinkedIn are the two main platforms for small businesses, with Twitter following. Sales leads from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, however, are not that far apart. Success is reported on Facebook at 42%, LinkedIn at 35%, and Twitter at 35%.
The number complaining that it takes more time than they’d expected has dropped over time. This is to be expected – the more you use social media, the better/more efficient you’ll get at it. Also, the more-experienced seem to outsource social media work, to some extent. I recently heard of a New York bar that outsources its social media efforts to India. Not something I’d recommend, but interesting nonetheless.
Summing up: This is all good news actually. Social media keeps you connected and engaged with customers — and if you are NOT using social media, your business is missing that “loyalty” edge. Sure, getting new customers isn’t easy, but about half are reporting success in that. I’m willing to bet the half that succeed in getting new customers are doing a lot more than the other half.
