Commentary
Besides Facebook, Small Business "Likes" Linkedin and Twitter
- by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, April 4, 2013
According to recent data from Constant Contact, small businesses are increasingly seeing the value of social media platforms across the board, and, in particular, LinkedIn and Twitter. 80% of respondents surveyed in December 2012 said they conduct social media marketing and, when asked which social media platform was the most effective for their organization, the always-dominant Facebook won out at 82%.
More notable was the fact that 29% said LinkedIn was effective for their business, an increase of 19 percentage points compared to a similar Constant Contact Small Business survey last spring, and 25% said Twitter, a rise of 18 percentage points from last spring.
Considered Most Effective For Their Organization (% of Respondents) | ||
Social Media | Dec 2012 | May 2012 |
82% | 75% | |
29% | 10% | |
25% | 7% | |
YouTube | 15% | 3% |
9% | 1% | |
Yelp | 6% | 2% |
Google+ | 5% | 1% |
Source: Constant Contact, March 2013 | ||
Mark Schmulen, general manager, social media, Constant Contact, says “... while Facebook remains the dominant platform, small businesses... expanding their engagement to reach audiences across multiple networks... another positive step in the social media adoption curve for SMBs.”
While small business interest in social media is on the rise, small business owners continue to lack confidence in their social media skills. (54%) chose social media marketing as the marketing activity they need the most help with. Only 13% of survey respondents post to Twitter daily and 10% post weekly to LinkedIn.
Schmulen commented that “... social media marketing is a relatively new practice for most small businessesk... the majority of small businesses are ‘experimenting’ with social... (but) have learned that social media marketing requires a commitment to engaging their audience on a consistent basis...”
Small business year-end revenue reports did not match their mid-year 2012 optimism, says the report, showing year-end revenues vs. predictions. Hiring, however, stayed in line with mid-year predictions. 66% of small businesses said they were not planning to hire, and 62% reported in December 2012 that employee levels stayed the same.
SMB 2012 Year-End Revenue Performance (% of Respondents) | |
Performance Year End, 2012 | % Who Predicted As of May, 2012 |
38% said improved more than 10% | Expected by 52% |
21% said improved less than 10%. | Expected by 27% |
23% said flat | Expected by 13% |
8% said decreased by less than 10% | Expected by only 4% |
10% said decreased by more than 10% | Expected by only 3% i |
Source: Constant Contact, March 2013 | |
This Constant Contact-sponsored survey was administered in December 2012 to 1,100 participants in the Constant Contact Small Biz Council, a research panel of US small businesses and nonprofits. Results include responses from a range of business-to-business and business-to-consumer industries.
For more information, and to download the PDF file from Constant Comment, please visit here.
Jack Loechner is the Editor of The Center for Media Research's daily Research Brief. You can reach him at jack@mediapost.com.
It would be interesting to see this broken out by B2B vs. B2C companies. I have yet to run into any case studies that really show Facebook is anything other than general brand awareness for B2B. I've seen lots of great examples of it working out for B2C, which is why I imagine Facebook is ranked so high in this study.
-April Wilson, CEO, Digital Analytics 101
@April, I think it's going to take longer for B2B but the signs are already there. Brand awareness can certainly help in the B2B context, but what we need to see more of is useful content and active engagement.