New Survey Tracks Growing Significant of Social Media to SMBs

A recent survey conducted by BIA/Kelsey (Wave 19-2015 of Local Commerce Monitor, or LCM) demonstrates the growing important of social media to SMB marketing efforts. In fact, of all business surveyed, 73.2 percent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) reported that they currently use social medial to promote their businesses. Here are some key takeaways from the report.

Social Media Forums

While the survey confirmed the continued dominance of Facebook pages for SMB marketing (57.4 percent reported using Facebook in 2015, up from 53 percent in 2014), it also revealed other key social media players:

Twitter (Regular Tweets): Of those surveyed, 20.9 percent reported promoting their business via regular tweets, which was up from 18.3 percent in 2014).
Pinterest: In 2015, 13.8 percent of SMBs surveyed reported using Pinterest for social media marketing, which was up from 10.1 percent in 2014.
Instagram: This social media forum saw a big gain, with 11.5 percent of SMBs reporting usage in 2015, compared to 8.1 percent in 2014.

Social Media Marketing Budgets

The survey was further broken down into two categories (the Core Sample and Plus Spenders), based on the SMB’s advertising budget (in dollars). SMBs surveyed in the report (the Core Sample) spend less than $25,000 annually on advertising and promotion. The report also looked at Plus Spender SMBS, which spend a minimum of $25,000 annually on advertising/promotions. When looking at these two samples separately, the report found the following:

The smaller SMBs surveyed that composed the Core Sample plan to allot 21.1 percent of their total advertising budget toward social media.
The larger SMBs, or Plus Spenders, plan to dedicate 17.8 percent of the budget toward social media marketing efforts.

Time on Social Media

The survey also revealed that SMBs are spending more time on social media than ever.

Of those surveyed, 38 percent will spend one to four hours per week on social media.
Of SMBs, 28.9 percent reported spending 5 to 24 hours a week on social media.
Finally, 8.9 percent reported dedicating 25 hours or more per week to social media.