Study Finds Small Businesses Embracing Social, Slower To Adopt Mobile
Small businesses are becoming more comfortable with social media, according results of a new survey released this morning by Constant Contact. The Fall 2011 “Attitudes and Outlook Survey,” which Constant Contact said was released in conjunction with “Small Business Saturday,” also reports that small businesses still rely heavily on in-person interactions and events in addition to email marketing and Web site marketing to reach their customers, while mobile adoption remains slow.
The findings show the following shift in perceptions of small business operates since Constant Contact’s last survey in the Spring of 2011:
- 83 percent said it is low cost (up from 72 percent in the Spring 2011 study).
- 67 percent said it is easy to use (up from 54 percent in the Spring 2011 study).
- 51 percent said their customers use social media channels (up from 38 percent in the Spring 2011 study).
- 45 percent said it didn’t take a lot of time (up from 31 percent in the Spring 2011).
Small businesses report allocating more time to social media marketing to reach consumers, and 81 percent reported using social media to market their businesses, up from 73 percent in the spring of 2011.
Of those using social media marketing, Facebook continues to be the tool of choice for small businesses with 96 percent reporting using the tool. Twitter is quickly gaining ground; usage surged in the last six months, from 60 percent in Spring 2011 to 76 percent today.
Effectiveness scores also improved across certain key social media marketing channels in just six months:
- 60 percent of those using Twitter found it effective for marketing their business, up from 47 percent in Spring 2011.
- 55 percent found LinkedIn® effective, up from 47 percent in Spring 2011.
- 86 percent found Facebook effective, up from 82 percent in Spring 2011.
Effectiveness scores remained flat for review sites, video sharing, and location-based services, and decreased for photo sharing and MySpace.
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