Social Media Hasn't Conquered Small Businesses

The social media revolution hasn’t quite conquered small businesses according to a new study. In June, Hiscox, a small business insurance provider, polled more than 300 decision makers for U.S. small businesses. Of those polled, just 12% considered using social media a “must” for their business. However, 50% of respondents said they couldn’t do without word-of-mouth marketing. (Just 4% said the same about social media marketing.)

According to eMarketer, a whopping 64% of those polled said social media was either not necessary or not something they had an opinion about. Of those small businesses that were using social media for marketing, Facebook was the most common vehicle, followed by LinkedIn.

Nicole Perrin, senior editor at eMarketer, says she’s not surprised by the results. “We typically don’t see that they see this as the be-all, end-all,” she says, noting that small businesses often lack the resources to execute a social media marketing plan. “They’re still very focused on traditional word-of-mouth and very used to traditional marketing.”

Funny thing is, social media is a form of word-of-mouth marketing. Users of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are sharing information with friends, family, colleagues and acquaintances. This includes information on how much they love a particular brand, a new widget, the food at a restaurant or service at a business place. It may not be word-of-mouth marketing in the traditional sense, but it is spreading the word of small (and medium and large) businesses and its influence continues to grow.

While social media may not be an absolute necessity to your small business marketing strategy, it can definitely be an effective and low-cost marketing tactic to raise awareness of your business and promote your products or services. If you feel like online social networking is going to consume too much of your time and effort, consider hiring a marketing professional to help manage your social media marketing. It's something that small business marketing consultants understand and can manage efficiently for low cost!