Use of Social Media Doubles Among Small Businesses

Thirty-seven percent of small businesses still rely on traditional print advertising to get the word out. After advertising, the second-most popular form of marketing is e-mail (24%), followed by social media (19%).   

Social media ranked about even with cold-calls (18%) and direct mail (17%), suggesting that small business owners have yet to discover the true potential of this technology. For example, the ability to collaborate with suppliers, partners, colleagues or staff. 

Yet, this type of innovation is what separates the small business winners from the losers. Besides working capital, the authors found that marketing and innovation were the two largest indicators of small business success.        

“There may be a vast untapped potential for using the medium to link members of the supply network, colleagues and staff to gain advantages in creativity and productivity. Such internal uses are harder to imagine and in their infancy, but have the potential to unleash a vast reservoir of creativity and joint  problem solving as social media users grow exponentially. Examples of such uses are developing a new product or service, finding low cost resources, teaming to pursue business  opportunities, or leveraging an expert source to solve a special problem.”            

The 2009 Small Business Report  goes into more detail about how the report was compiled, provides more detail on what characterizes a successful small business and provides a year-over-year Small Business Success Index. If you work with the small business community, it’s one of the most useful and fact-filled reports you’ll read all year.