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Social Media in Small Business: Lacking?
June 26th, 2010 | Author: 
social media and small business
I didn’t conducted any surveys on this, but using Google Insights for Search tool (read my previous article about Small Business Global Outlook, using Google Insights as analytical tool,) we can get a big picture of what people are searching for and what people are having keen interest in.
This time, I am curious about the insights on social media in small business. The results are interesting and shocking.
Small business is NOT embracing social media – yet
Mashable.com’s article about how small business is using social media, referring to a release from Robert H. Smith School of Business – University of Maryland, shows a growing trend of small business owners implementing social media into their business.
The Robert H. Smith School of Business release shows that US small business adopting social media has doubled since 2009, from 12% to 24%.
Although this seems encouraging, I think that 24% is a pretty small percentage compared to the hype surrounding social media these days. Furthermore, please note that the growth figure is on US Small Businesses. What about the rest of the world?
I couldn’t find any data on global figures, but using Google Insights for Search can give you a nice big picture. So, check this out:
social media trends in small business
The above shows healthy growth in Google searches on social media related to small business. However, Google Insights warned that less than 10% of searches containing the “social media” search terms belong to the Small Business category – not nice. Here’s another interesting graph to show:
Social media in small business - regional interest
Why the ‘blue bar’ is on United States only? It signifies that the rest of the world’s interest on social media in small business is minimal or even non existent.
It’s probably not that accurate as Google only deliver about 20% of web traffic from global population who has access to the Internet, but 20% is enough to let us know the big picture: Global small business owners are clearly NOT embracing social media – yet.
For a complete view, please visit Google Insights on social media and small business.
Global small business owners: Implement social media strategies NOW
The above data is not all gloom and doom – those represent a huge opportunity for small business owners to gain an edge over the competition using social media. I’ve started to see the big guys in my home country implemented social media strategies – the rest will follow, eventually, but NOT YET; this also applies to the US.
So, make sure you benefit (and profit) from this window of opportunity – before it’s all too late, as social media’s impact on small business is growing exponentially, worldwide.
Ivan Widjaya
Social media in small business
- 2010 Small Business Global Outlook
- Social Media Strategy for Small Business: 5 Easy Steps to Get Started
- Are Small Business Owners Wasting Their Time with Social Media?
- Using Mobile Advertising to Promote Your Small Business Social Media Profiles
- Social Media and Your Business
- BizSugar Sweetens Your Small Business Social Media Marketing Campaign
About the Author
Ivan Widjaya is the Owner/Editor of Noobpreneur.com. He is a web property investor, blogger and web property maker, and currently manages and writes for My Web Estate. He also runs a web design business, Chalcedony Design, specialising in Wordpress theme creation, and plenty other web business.
Visit Noobpreneur's profile and other posts.
Posted in business news | Tags: google insights, small business, small business trends, social media, social media trends
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Really interesting percentages, very low. From my experience with clients, it’s probably a bit higher than that, and it seems to mainly stem from lack of a plan and understanding what social media is about.
Small businesses should be the leaders of the pack with social media, dominating larger companies and big name corporations with ease. The core of small business cuts through all the barriers larger companies have, so it’s kind of up to them to decide. A lot of small businesses are still dropping large amounts on PPC and SEO, getting minimal (if that) returns, and not wanting to use social media to reconnect to their customers and really understand the pulse of their niche and expertise.
Good article Ivan!
Omar,
Well said! You mention about PPC and SEO: I agree – small businesses focus (a bit) too much on those, forgetting that there are many other cost-effective ways in getting exposure to their business – social media works wonder!
Cheer :)
Very inspiring post. What? Well, entreprenuers that see the glass as being half full will realize that there is still the chance for small business people throughout the world to become “early embracers” and jump out ahead of their competition.
Small Business Owners need to be smart in the ways they employ the Internet in order to be easily found and then to impress their target customer base when these consumers land at their websites for the very first time.
If a small business website passes the effectiveness test and if its owner has done all of his or her homework with regard to “geo-search,” they’ll be very pleased at the additional phone calls they’ll be getting from local customers looking for a good business to work with.
Marc,
Yes – there are still chances for the rest of us to utilise social media to ace the competition.
Thanks for your comment.