Are you using social media for your business? Is it working for you? Last week Jim Blasingame, the small business advocate, shared the results of his most recent small business social media survey data. He asked his newsletter subscribers — not a random group, but one that does represent a lot of small businesses — this question:
Are the results of your social media strategy justifying the time and investment?
Here’s what they said:
- 16%
- Yes, we’re using social media very effectively.
- 48%
- Not yet, but we believe it will eventually be justified.
- 21%
- No, and we’ve discontinued our social media efforts.
- 15%
- We never started because we couldn’t see how it would produce sales.
I’m not surprised. Actually this matches what I’d guess from just talking to people.
I believe two underlying truths explain this data:
- Most of the 15% who don’t see how it would produce sales don’t realize what they’re missing.
- Most of the 21% who have discontinued their efforts were caught be the myth that social media just happens, in your spare time, without regard to business objectives, tactics, and actual execution.
This is also a good illustration of the value of any small business social media survey: So much depends on the questions when you create a survey, and even more on the list or group that generates respondents. In this case, I’m more interested in the results because I know Jim, his show, and his audience. They are essentially small business ownes and entrepreneurs.