Small Business Top Priority in 2011: Social Media Marketing

social media marketing
Social media marketing

Small business owners: What’s your top business priority in 2011? According to the most recent survey by Manta Small Business Survey, small businesses are ready to spend money in pursuing their priorities.

The majority (77 percent) of small business respondents plans to spend in 2011, with 47 percent of those who planned are prioritising on marketing and sales (23 percent on marketing and advertising, 24 percent on business development.)

…a good sign of economic recovery?

Are small businesses ready for riding the economic recovery wave?

Maybe small business owners are ready, but unfortunately, economic recovery won’t likely to happen this year; on contrary to what the experts say, 67 percent of the surveyed small business owners believe that the recession is not over, yet.

I personally don’t think 2011 as the turning point to economic recovery. However, it is always great when small businesses are putting effort to push their business up – it’s encouraging, indeed.

Social media marketing is the key

It’s probably safe to assume that a good portion of business expenditures will be on social media marketing, as 42 percent respondents find social media sites – Facebook, Twitter and the likes – are helpful in getting the word out and connecting with customers.

If you are not considering social media as the go-to place for your advertising and sales campaigns, I recommend you to re-consider it.

Social media marketing is cost-effective. Many testify that Facebook advertising is more effective than the others, including Google ads – one of them is Charlie Gunningham, who in his article mentioned that Google ads’ CPM is 10 times Facebook ads’ CPM for the similar results. This CNN Money’s article echoes that.

Is social media marketing your top priority?

I’m definitely into social media marketing as my line of business is entirely online-based. I am definitely planning to use Facebook ads to drive targeted traffic to my sites.

One tip: If you are planning to advertise in social media, opt for video ad format, as it is more effective than the rest of the Net, according to TubeMogul research report.

How about you? What is your top priority for your business? Are you going to spend on marketing and business development? Do you consider social media marketing as your top priority? Please share your thoughts by commenting on this article.

Ivan Widjaya
Social media marketing
Image: Matt Hamm