THE SOCIAL MEDIA
REVOLUTION FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES
SMBs around the world look to increase social participation across the board
The biggest change in small-business marketing over
the past five years is the rise of digital media—
and especially the jump in importance of social to
SMB marketing. Consumer-facing firms especially
report benefitting from social efforts, and SMBs around
the world plan to increase efforts on virtually every
social channel.
Digital media have changed life in countless ways over
the past few decades, and small-business owners have felt
the effects as well. Asked in May 2013 by small-business
marketing solutions provider Constant Contact about the
ways doing business had changed in the past five years,
more than a quarter were using more automated business
solutions, and a whopping 84% were using more online
marketing tools.
Overall, the most common marketing tool used by
respondents was email, which was up 34 percentage
points over usage levels five years previously. But social
media marketing had skyrocketed from 10% of small
business to 87% in the same time period, the largest
increase by far for any digital marketing technique.
Social Media Examiner queried small-business marketers
around the world in January about how social media
helped their business: 89% cited increased exposure, 75%
increased traffic and 69% new marketplace insights. While
a relatively small 43% could say social media marketing
had definitely improved sales, a host of other benefits
including reduced marketing expenses, lead generation and
better search rankings were also mentioned.
The survey found the greatest increase in platform use
planned for YouTube and other online videos, followed
closely by Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter. Most
small businesses still had no plans to use channels like
podcasts, social bookmarking, geolocation, Q&A sites or
daily deals.
% of respondents
Leading Marketing Tools Used by US Small Businesses
Now vs. Five Years Ago, May 2013
Email marketing
64%
98%
Online directories
21%
36%
Event marketing
20%
44%
Social media marketing
10%
87%
5 years ago
Now
Source: Constant Contact, "Small Business Then and Now," June 17, 2013
159073
www.
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Marketer.com
October 2013
