Survey Shows Small Business are Using Social Media Less in the Last Few Months

Small Business are Using Social Media Less

Nett Better Business Advice reports:

According to research released by accounting firm MYOB, there has been a decline in small-to-medium businesses (SMBs) using online tools.

MYOB’s July 2012 Business Monitor surveyed 1,004 SMB owners and found that online business activity such as online transactions, email marketing, and social media has fallen.

The study also discovered that the proportion of those surveyed with a business website increased slightly. It is now up to 38% of respondents, from 36% back in March 2012.

Furthermore, those SMB owners surveyed with a website were more likely to see a rise in revenue in the past 12 months than those without, 23% in comparison to 15%.

“Last year, those with a business website were 53% more likely to experience a revenue increase,” said Tim Reid, CEO of MYOB.

“They also said positive business changes were more likely a result of having a website than using other promotional media, or a result of utilising both.” Read More

And Business IT reports:

We’ve sat through enough presentations on social media to know that it has the potential to do wonders for your sales and/or brand if you are a small struggling business. On the other side of the coin, you can spend a lot of time on it, with little return, if you don’t use it effectively.

With this in mind, we weren’t shocked to discover that although more small businesses are running their own websites, the MYOB Business Monitor found that online activity was down in July compared to previous months.

MYOB CEO Tim Reed said, “The decline in popularity of online business activities was completely unexpected, particularly that of online marketing and social media. Many of these tools, such as a basic LinkedIn page, are free and can be used to raise the profile of a business and to communicate with customers”.

The challenge for small businesses is to find a balance between working on the business and working in the business. Given that we are still operating in uncertain economic times it’s not surprising to see that time on activities such as social media is falling. Read More

How are you using Social Media for business? Leave a comment!