Social Media Best For Lead Generation, Not Sales
By Anna Johnson on January 5th, 2010According to a survey from Citibank, the majority of small businesses don’t believe social networks have helped them grow their businesses. On the other hand, the ‘Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010′ from Ad-ology indicates that social networking HAS helped with lead generation.
In Ad-ology’s survey of small businesses, one-half of respondents cited lead generation as the biggest benefit of social networking. They also regarded participating on social networks as a good way to keep up with their industries, and to monitor online chatter about their businesses.
Small businesses identified Facebook as the most beneficial social networking site, with one-third of respondents designating it at least somewhat helpful. Small businesses were also more likely to use Facebook over any other social network.
Meanwhile, 21 percent of small businesses regarded LinkedIn as beneficial, whilst 19 percent considered Twitter beneficial.
Small businesses also attributed a lack of knowledge about social networking as a major obstacle to doing more in social media. One-half of respondents wished they knew more about the channel.
The biggest obstacle to increasing their social networking activities was, however, the view – held by 31 percent of small businesses – that ‘our customers do not use social networks.’
Source: eMarketer, “How Can Social Media Help Small Biz?” eMarketer, December 24, 2009
