INFOGRAPHIC: How to Reach Small Businesses Through Social Media

Published on March 17, 2014 - By Jo Meunier (née Disney)

Last month we published an infographic from Gigya highlighting social sharing trends across the world. The research provides compelling data on which social media channel is right for your business, and where these channels fit in on the global scale.

Following on from this, you may find the following infographic on small business social media trends from Vertical Response equally useful.

400 small businesses, which are all customers of email marketing platform Vertical Response, were polled to find out how they use social media for business. Topics range from which social networks small businesses are using the most, to how often they post on their company blog.

The results are interesting and you can certainly use them to better understand how your potential clients carry out business activities on social media.

However, there are limitations. Unlike Gigya’s report, the findings are not location-focused. As a US company founded in San Francisco, the majority of businesses polled are based in the States, although this is not determined in the report.

Furthermore the data is not industry-specific, so it’s just as likely to include non-office based companies as those of a desk-bound nature.

Bearing these factors in mind, the report offers interesting reading and can help business centre operators to better understand how small businesses, and potential clients, use social media. In particular:

• The majority (88%) use Facebook as their network of choice, while other channels including Twitter (67%) and LinkedIn (44.6%) fare reasonably well.
• Time spent on social media is limited – over 60% spend less than 6 hours per week.
• However, a concentration of small businesses clearly understand the importance of social media as a marketing channel, as just under a quarter spend 6-10 hours per week and 10% spend 11-20 hours per week.
• Almost 40% reportedly pay for a third party tool to manage their social media campaigns.
• Small businesses also realise the value of blogging in their content marketing strategy. Over half have a company blog, with 19% posting once a week or more, and an impressive 2% posting several times per day.
• More small businesses are finding value in video and review sites, with 35% using YouTube as part of their social media strategy.

As we know, the social media opportunities for business centre operators are endless. As well as the possibility of ‘meeting’ new clients, it is also an essential tool for communicating with existing clients and increasing customer engagement. Identifying the channel that helps you do that is all-important, as is the level of commitment and investment you make in your social strategy.

How do you use social media for your business? Which channel works best? As ever, do let us know – and join us over on our LinkedIn channel where we’ll debate the topic further.