25% Of Small businesses Are Using Social Media

According to a recent report, 25% of small businesses now have a branded social network page and 41% are using social networks to advertise and promote their businesses.

I can’t say I’m surprised – in fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if this number doubles two years from now. I said it before: just like websites moved from “nice to have” into “must have” for businesses in the early nineties, the same is going to happen with social media accounts.

They are still considered a “nice addition” if you have the time and budget by many small businesses, and some small businesses flat out refuse to admit that social media offers them any value whatsoever and insist that it’s “just a phase,” but more and more small businesses are realizing that NOT using social media has costs too – and they are not willing to pay those costs.

The main three reasons small businesses are embracing social media:

1. Consumers are there. It makes sense that if your prospects use social media, you would want to be there too.

2. Their competitors are there. Allowing your prospects and your competitors to play together in the social media field while standing on the sideline doing nothing would be insane.

3. The recession has forced small businesses to become more creative in their marketing. When a marketing budget needs to be stretched, online marketing – accessible and relatively cheap, is a great solution.

Interestingly, half of the business owners surveyed said that social media marketing takes more time than they had expected. Again, can’t say I’m surprised – social media is about building and nurturing relationships, and to do it properly you need to invest time.

It IS possible in my opinion to limit your time on social media to no more than 10 minutes a day (certainly no more than an hour!) and get great results, and certainly hiring a social media consultant is an option too if you’d rather use your time doing something else for your business.