About 80 percent of small business owners use Facebook for marketing, according to a recent study. That makes the iconic social media platform the most popular tool for small business marketers in the digital world and beyond. It’s more popular than other social channels like Twitter and LinkedIn, online advertising networks like AdWords, and traditional advertising methods like newspapers and radio.
The study comes from marketing services provider G2 Crowd. The company surveyed small business owners and managers from companies with 250 employees or less. It also found that 24 percent plan to prioritize investments toward marketing and advertising this year. So many business owners plan to prioritize marketing over other areas like hiring sales staff or investing in new software.
Top Social Media Sites for Marketing
After Facebook, Twitter was named as the most popular marketing channel for small businesses, followed by LinkedIn and Instagram. One of the big reasons why small businesses might be gravitating toward these platforms is that they’re free to use. And even paid advertising options can be inexpensive and easy for small business owners to stick with. However, it’s likely that a lot of small business owners using those platforms are sticking to just the free options like setting up their own Facebook pages and sending out promotional tweets.
But some small businesses are also sticking with social platforms like Facebook simply because they’re seeing success there. Thirty eight percent of survey respondents said that Facebook is their most successful marketing channel. So it’s definitely possible for businesses to take advantage of low or no cost options to boost their marketing efforts.
However, these results also highlight the need for small businesses to really set themselves apart on Facebook and similar platforms. Since the vast majority of small businesses are already using Facebook for marketing, it’s not enough to simply set up a page and wait for customers to gravitate to it. You need to be active and find unique ways to use the platform so you don’t just fade into the background with your competitors.
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