Business-to-Business Key Findings – October 2012
| Small and Mid-Sized Businesses aren’t using Social Media Strategically |
Small and Mid-Sized Businesses aren’t using Social Media Strategically
While the use of social media is growing among small and mid-size businesses, many are not using it as part of a strategic business plan, according to study by the SMP Group. Standing in the way of better planning, measurement, integration and bottom-line results for small and mid-size businesses using social media is:
1. Lack of time (62%);
2. Too many social sites and confusion about effective strategies and site usage;
3. Too tough to measure – almost half of mid-size firms don’t know how to measure n the impact of social media (only 1 in 4 is using free or paid social monitoring tools);
4. Cumbersome monitoring tools and services;
and 5. Confusion about how to engage customers effectively. (Informationweek.com)
Bullet Points
- Social media is used by 74% of B2B marketers. (www.mediabistro.com)
- 90% of B2B marketers do some type of content marketing, much of it on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media sites. (Content Marketing Institute.com)
- The most popular content marketing tactics include article posting (79%), social media (74%), blogs (65%), enewsletters (63%), case studies (58%), and face-to-face events (56%). (Content Marketing Institute.com)
- Regular email usage among U.S. adults will increase 2.7% this year, 3% in 2013 and 2.3% in 2014. (eMarketer.com: “Email Marketing Benchmarks: Key Data, Trends and Metrics.”)