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Social Media Marketing to Small Businesses – New Research

December 9, 2009

In the latest report from our Business Social Media Benchmarking Study research, “Engaging Small Business Decision Makers Through Social Media,” we address a key question on the minds of companies marketing to small business:

What are the best social media channels for reaching and engaging with small business decision makers?

The answer, it turns out, depends very significantly on the industry you target for your company’s products or services, whether or not you target business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C) companies and, at small businesses with 10-99 employees, the job level of your target decision maker (e.g., middle-management vs. senior management vs. C-level).

The results we report are based on insights from over 1,700 participants in a middle management (Director, Department Head, Supervisor) or above role in a small business (<100 employees) in the US or Canada. All of these study participants currently use one or more social media resources for business-relevant information in their day-to-day job. Here are some of the key findings:

Overall, the most popular social media resources small business decision makers turn to for business are webinars and podcasts, user ratings and reviews of business products and services, and business profiles (accounts, fan pages, channels, etc.) on social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other sites.

Small business decision makers are attracted to the speed and convenience with which they can find or request business-relevant information from social media channels. For example, webinars save the time and expense of travel for professional education.

Industry has a major impact on both the number of social media resources used for business and the most popular types. For example, small business decision makers in the Healthcare, Retail and Legal industries use significantly fewer social media resources for business than study respondents from other industries.

Within small businesses, company size (sole proprietor vs. micro-business with 1-9 employees vs. small business with 10-99 employees) and job role or department in a company aren’t related to business social media usage in any meaningful way.

We can gain some very interesting insights into the likely evolution of business social media usage by looking across industries and at small business decision makers with different levels of social media experience.

Visit http://www.business.com/info/engaging-small-business-through-social-media to download a copy of the complete 40 pg. report with 32 charts.

1 Comment | B2B Social Media | Tagged: business social media, marketing to small business, small business, social media research | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna

New Benchmarking Report: Business Social Media Usage

November 2, 2009

We’re very happy to announce that Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study report is now available as a free download at http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study.

With 2,948 participants from the US and Canada, this is the largest study to date of how North American businesses, and business people, use social media as well as the value they find across different social media activities and sites. All study participants currently used social media in their day-to-day jobs as a resource for business-relevant information and/or work for a company currently managing, developing or planning social media initiatives.

This 42 page initial report provides excellent business social media benchmarking data for 2010 strategic planning. The report table of contents and list of figures are included below for more detail:

Beyond Chatting with Friends: Social Media as a Business Resource
     Who Uses Social Media as a Resource for Business Information?
     Most Popular Social Media Resources for Business
Most Useful Social Media Resources for Business
Current State of Corporate Social Media Initiatives
     Respondent and Company Experience with Business Social Media
     Top Corporate Social Media Activities
     How Companies Judge Social Media Success
     Initiative Detail: Managing Business Profiles on Social Media Sites
     Initiative Detail: Participating in Q&A Sites
     Initiative Detail: Using Social Media Monitoring Tools
     Initiative Detail: Sharing Business Content on Social Media Sites
     Initiative Detail: Business Content Bookmarking on Social Media Sites
Upcoming Reports Based on this Reseach
About the Study

List of Figures

Figure 1: Use of Social Media as a Business Information Resource by Job Level
Figure 2: Use of Social Media as a Business Information Resource by Job Role
Figure 3: Use of Social Media as a Business Information Resource by Company Size
Figure 4: Use of Social Media as a Business Information Resource by Industry
Figure 5: Most Popular Social Media Resources for Business Information
Figure 6: Number of Different Social Media Sites/Resources Used for Business Information
Figure 7: Usefulness of Different Social Media for Business Information
Figure 8: % of Work Time Spent Managing or Involved with Company Social Media Initiatives
Figure 9: Experience with Business Social Media Among Those Currently Managing or Involved with Business Social Media Initiatives
Figure 10: Company Experience with Social Media
Figure 11: Most Popular Business Social Media Initiatives
Figure 12: Company Department Driving Social Media Initiatives
Figure 13: Number of Different Business Social Media Initiatives Planned, in Development or Currently Running
Figure 14: Top Social Media Success Metrics
Figure 15: Ability to See Impact of Social Media Initiatives on Success Metrics
Figure 16: Ability to See Impact of Social Media Initiatives on Success Metrics by Company Experience with Social Media
Figure 17: Top Social Media Sites on Which Companies Maintain Business Profiles
Figure 18: Ability to See Business Impact of Profiles on Social Media Sites
Figure 19: Net Promoter Scores for Business Profiles on Select Sites
Figure 20: Top Q&A Sites on Which Companies Participate
Figure 21: Ability to See Business Impact of Participating on Q&A Sites
Figure 22: Net Promoter Score for Participating in Q&A on Select Sites
Figure 23: Most Popular Tools for Monitoring Online Conversations
Figure 24: Ability to See Business Impact of Online Conversation Monitoring Tools
Figure 25: Net Promoter Score for Select Social Media Monitoring Tools
Figure 26: Top Sites to Which Companies Upload Content
Figure 27: Ability to See Business Impact of Content Sharing on Select Sites
Figure 28: Net Promoter Score for Select Content Sharing Sites
Figure 29: Top Sites Companies Use for Social Bookmarking
Figure 30: Ability to See Business Impact of Social Bookmarking on Select Sites
Figure 31: Net Promoter Score for Select Social Bookmarking Sites
Figure 32: Study Participants by Company Size
Figure 33: Study Participants by Industry
Figure 34: Study Participants by Job Role
Figure 35: Study Participants by Job Level
Figure 36: Study Participants by Company Product / Service Focus
Figure 37: Study Participants by Company Type (B2C, B2B or Mixed)
Figure 38: Study Participants by Primary Customer Location
Figure 39: Study Participants by Company Potential Customer Count
Figure 40: Study Participants by Company Average Sales Cycle

We’ll be providing snapshots of some of the data in future blog posts but why wait – download Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study today and let us know what you think!

No Comments » | B2B Social Media, Business.com News | Tagged: benchmark report, business social media | Permalink
Posted by Ben Hanna