According to research conducted by the online marketing company Constant Contact, more and more businesses are relying on social media for much of their digital marketing campaigns.
Facebook is the most popular social media platform for marketing, and close to 30 percent of the business owners who responded say they use it for multiple purposes: communicating with customers and clients, interacting with industry leaders – even using it to interface with competitors. Almost 35 percent of owners who responded said they use social media to provide exclusive offers to customers.
The research also addressed those businesses that have not yet engaged in using social media. The principle reasons cited for not using it are a lack of proper resources, a belief that email marketing campaigns are adequate, and insecurity about how time-consuming social media marketing may be. Not understanding how or what to post on social media sites was also cited as reasons for not using these resources.
Despite those businesses that do not use social media, over 80 percent of small business owners surveyed said that they use social media to reach out to customers, and the research indicates that number will surpass 90 percent over the coming year.
Reference:
Mielach, David. “Small Businesses Fall Short on Social Media Marketing,” BusinessNewsDaily. July 1, 2013.
