A recent study on social media trends offers some useful insights on small business use of social media. The top line findings–that Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn, and Facebook are marketers’ preferred social media tools–is pretty predicable. But it’s some of the other data that offers a good reminder of why business owners need to understand, and consider using, social media.
According to the Social Media Marketing Industry Report, business owners were more likely to use social media tools than people working for someone else. And more and more of us are incorporating social media into our marketing mix. The report finds that business owners of companies with 2-100 employees tended to be earlier adopters than our sole proprietor brethren–but more of them are joining the social media ranks every day.
Business owners reported that social media has led to:
- more exposure for their business
- improved Web traffic
- new partnerships
- better search engine rankings
- leads and new business
The report also contains a useful Top 10 list of questions people want answered about social media. They’re worth keeping in mind when considering your own use of social media or if you’re trying to convince a client to add a social media component to their marketing strategy.
