Survey shows social media as a major marketing tool for small businesses

According to foreign media reports, according to a market research company constant Contact latest survey shows that the recent upsurge in social media marketing activities, social media has become the main marketing tool for small enterprises.

Constant Contact's survey shows that 73% of small businesses now use social media to advertise their businesses, and this trend continues to grow. For companies that have not yet used social media to advertise their marketing, 62% of companies are expected to start using social media marketing tools from next year. In addition, 81% of companies that have used social media marketing are expected to increase their social media marketing efforts.

The survey also found that small businesses still rely heavily on e-mail, web sites, marketing campaigns, and advertising marketing to promote their business. Despite the optimism of the 2011-Year development outlook, small businesses still face varying levels of operational and financial challenges, including attracting new customers, retaining existing customers and using cash flow to operate effectively.

Of all the social media tools, Facebook is the preferred marketing tool for small businesses. According to the survey, about 95% of companies using social media marketing choose Facebook as their marketing tool, and 82% believe that marketing through Facebook is effective. By contrast, the results of the two similar surveys conducted by Constant contact in April and October were 51% and 63% respectively.

Small businesses believe that other social media marketing tools can also achieve different levels of successful marketing. Of the companies that use Twitter for marketing, 47% believe that marketing through Twitter is effective, and 47% of companies that use LinkedIn for marketing believe that marketing through LinkedIn is effective And in businesses that use video-sharing tools such as YouTube or Vimeo, the proportion of companies that have social media marketing as effective is 73%.

Guergoudemain Gail Goodman, chief executive of Constant Contact, said: "The value of social media marketing for small businesses is well received in small businesses that have no time to sell or lack marketing resources." They just have to learn how to use those tools well. We believe that further training can improve the performance gains that small businesses gain through social media marketing. ”

The survey also notes that e-mail is the preferred tool for small businesses to communicate with existing and potential customers, but is not the most used tool. 83% of small businesses claim to be their preferred tool, they check email every day online, and 72% of small businesses check e-mail more than 6 times a day. By contrast, businesses that check Facebook, news sites and Twitter for more than 6 times a day are only 13%, 6%, and 4%, respectively.

"We have seen small business customers improve their performance by using integrated e-mail marketing and social media marketing tools," Goodman said. E-mail is still the preferred tool for small businesses to publish information, and social media can show that information to more audiences. For example, if an email is a fire, then social media is the fan. ”

While social media marketing tools have improved utilization, the utilization of other marketing tools has not declined. The survey found that 91% of small businesses use e-mail for marketing, 95% of small businesses use websites for marketing, 77% of small businesses use print advertising for marketing, 69% of small businesses use online advertising for marketing, and 53% of small businesses use promotional campaigns for marketing. These findings suggest that social media marketing does not replace traditional marketing methods, but rather provides a useful complement to traditional marketing methods.

This article source: Tencent Science and technology