The Alternative Board recently announced the results of their TAB Small Business Pulse Survey. The survey looked at small businesses on social media. We have been through the research and put together the parts that we think you will find interesting in this blog post.

If you are a small business considering social media as a marketing tool for your business, then this is a must read blog post for you. The research we share with you looks at how many small businesses are on social media. It also looks at how long they spend on social media. The blog looks at how this time is spent on social media. Finally, which social media platforms are the most effective for small business owners.

  • Research by The Alternative Board found that 17% of small businesses do not have a presence on any social media platforms.
  • 59% of small business owners feel that having a social media presence is a ‘nice to have’ but not essential to the running of their business.
  • 77% of small business owners believe that the most important content to share online should be relevant on their social media channels.
  • 66% of small business owners find that the biggest challenge when it comes to social is finding or creating the right message to share.
  • Research shows that 6% of small businesses use vanity metrics such as likes, shares or views as their way of measuring the ROI for social media.
  • 57% of businesses have some form of metric to measure the ROI of social media. This means that 43% of businesses do not.
  • 57% of people responding to the TAB Small Business Pulse Survey said that the top way they measure ROI from social media marketing is web enquiries and revenue growth.

How are you tracking the return on investment from your social media profiles? Anyone can get a video shared and seen by hundreds. However, if it’s not relevant to your business, what’s the point?

If you think social media is essential to the growth and success of your business, but you just don’t have the time – then call us. We can manage your social media presence for you. We offer a social media management service.