The
University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business looked at the relationship
between social media and small businesses and found that the technology
adoption rates in the U.S. have doubled
in the past year from 12% to 24%.
The data
comes straight from the university’s third installment to its Small Business
Success Index report and is based on a December 2009 telephone survey of 500
small business owners. Adoption rate calculations are compared against a
baseline report conducted in December 2008.
The study
concludes that nearly one in five small business owners are
integrating social media into their business processes — Facebook and LinkedIn were the most
popular sites. In fact, 45% of surveyed respondents even believe their social
media initiatives will pay off financially in 12 months or less.
As the
graphic below details, the small business owners who are using social media are
primarily engaging in social media
through company pages (75%) and status updates (69%) on Facebook or LinkedIn.
What’s especially intriguing is that a much smaller percentage of respondents —
just 16% — are using Twitter
as a customer service channel.
Another
interesting notion is that small business owners now believe social media can
help them on the lead generation front, and that is the primary motivating
factor for engaging in these new customer service channels. So while half of
surveyed respondents found the time it takes to use social media sites more
daunting than expected, 61% are still putting in the hours and making active
efforts to identify new customers.
Clearly social media has become a valuable tool for
small businesses, but we’re especially curious to see how Twitter adoption
rates fluctuate over the time. While we expect more small businesses to use
Twitter as a customer service channel in the year ahead, as it stands, Facebook
and LinkedIn have become the predominant platforms for small business owners.
@Mashable