Small Businesses Finding Social Media Effective

It’s taken a few years to really get things rolling, but social media—which includes Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and video sharing, among other tools—has now become an essential part of small business marketing. Those are the findings of the Spring 2011 Attitudes and Outlook Survey from email service provider Constant Contact,^® Inc.

The survey of more than 1,500 small businesses (the majority of which have 25 or fewer employees) showed that 73 percent used social media to market their businesses in the last year. Of those, 80 percent said they used it more in the past 12 months.

Leading the way is social media giant Facebook, which was used by 95 percent of the respondents. Of those, 82 percent said they find it effective for marketing their businesses—an increase of nearly 20 percent over a six-month period, and more than 30 percent compared to April 2010. Twitter and LinkedIn were used by 60 percent and 58 percent respectively; each had an effectiveness rating of 47 percent.

The growth in social media doesn’t mean small businesses are abandoning more traditional marketing tools. Instead, they are adding them to the mix.

According to the survey, email marketing is still used by 91 percent of the small businesses surveyed, with a reported 80 percent effectiveness—equal to Facebook and well ahead of other social media tactics. Direct mail and print advertising also remain important to small businesses, helping them create a blend of messages and media to break through the clutter most of us face each day.

As for what keeps them up at night, respondents listed  ”Attracting new customers” as their top priority (mentioned by 80 percent), followed by “Getting current customers to refer more business to them” (slightly more than 50 percent). Their third highest need was “Making marketing dollars go further for them,” which likely is reflected in the surge of social media activity in the last 12 months.

Overall, it appears that small businesses are working their way out of the malaise of the past couple of years and getting more aggressive with their marketing efforts. The maturing of social media definitely helps, but it is still not a silver bullet. For the immediate future at least, it is best used as part of a balanced marketing plan.