Use of Social Media in Business Doubles!

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The University of Maryland (yay!  my alma mater) conducted a study, called “The Small Business Success Index“, which found that social media doubled among small businesses in the last year.

This study asked business owners, 500 to be exact, about their use of social media.  61% had used social media in the past year to drive traffic to their businesses and attract customers.

In other studies, 45% of respondents viewed social media and blogging as a lead generation channel of growing importance.  Small businesses are spending 180% more of their budgets on blogging and social media.

According to the study:

• 75% created a company page on Facebook or LinkedIn
• 69% post status updates on Facebook or LinkedIn
• 26% use Twitter to talk about their industry expertise
• 39% have a blog to talk about expertise
  

Blogging was the most used social channel among small businesses.

Social media is dramatically more inexpensive than traditional marketing tools like advertising and direct mail. Social media marketing is a great way for small businesses, who have a relatively small marketing budget, to get information about their business out to targeted customers.  This way, they can compete with large businesses without breaking the bank!

It’s time for you to take your small business to the next level by using social media and a social media marketing plan to attract customers to your business.