Is it like small business still finds it difficult to realize the need of social media!!

As we see in new technology wherein most innovative individuals in the most innovative industry go for it and later the conservative individuals in the most conservative industry adopt to it, the universal adoption curve states 5 categories.

• Innovators
• Early adopters
• Early majority
• Late majority
• Laggards

It is not like innovators completely adopted to social media, atleast they have experienced and know the importance of social media as big companies started to integrate social media into their overall marketing, sales, HR, customer service and other strategies.
With this fine note I would like to share this information, I found a new blog post by Jack Loechner (Center for Media Research) to be very interesting. He reviews a new survey by Citibank of 500 small businesses and their experiences with social media. Here it goes…

“76% have not found social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be helpful in generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86% say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information.

The survey found that general search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo! trump small business-focused sites and the WSJ.com as destinations for small business owners to seek business advice or information. 61% of respondents say they rely on these search engine sites.
Lead Generation by Social Networks (% of Respondents, August 2009) Small Business Execs Who Say

Social networks are:
• Very helpful- 3%
• Somewhat helpful-9%
• Not very helpful- 13%
• Not at all helpful- 63%
• Don't know/na- 11%

Source: Citibank omnibus poll by Gfk Roper, October 2009

Maria Veltre, Executive Vice President of Citi's Small Business Segment, concludes "... small business owners are still feeling their way into social media... many... may not have the manpower or the time required take advantage of them."

Additional responses found that 42% of small business owners and managers reported that in the past year they have made greater use of their company's website to generate business leads and sales. Among companies with 20 to 99 employees the percentage rises, with 57% saying they have made greater use of their website. 28% of survey respondents are also using email marketing and 25% are using online advertising to generate business leads and sales".

From the above information it is clear that the adoption rates and the time small business owners and executives take is very low and the good thing is people slowly realizing the need and trying to adopt. It is difficult to digest for small business owners that their customers are there on social networks and this social media is a function of “going where are customers are”. I can tell you that we think of social media from the outset when designing our integrated sales, marketing and PR plans.