THE SOCIAL MEDIA
REVOLUTION FOR
SMALL BUSINESSES October 2013
SMBs around the world look to increase social participation across the board
The biggest change in small-business marketing over
Leading Marketing Tools Used by US Small Businesses
Now vs. Five Years Ago, May 2013
the past five years is the rise of digital media
% of respondents
and especially the jump in importance of social to
Email marketing
SMB marketing. Consumer-facing firms especially
64%
98%
report benefitting from social efforts, and SMBs around
Online directories
the world plan to increase efforts on virtually every
21%
social channel.
36%
Event marketing
20%
Digital media have changed life in countless ways over
44%
the past few decades, and small-business owners have felt
Social media marketing
the effects as well. Asked in May 2013 by small-business
10%
marketing solutions provider Constant Contact about the
87%
ways doing business had changed in the past five years,
5 years ago Now
more than a quarter were using more automated business
Source: Constant Contact, "Small Business Then and Now," June 17, 2013
solutions, and a whopping 84% were using more online
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marketing tools.
Overall, the most common marketing tool used by The survey found the greatest increase in platform use
respondents was email, which was up 34 percentage planned for YouTube and other online videos, followed
points over usage levels five years previously. But social closely by Facebook, blogs, LinkedIn and Twitter. Most
media marketing had skyrocketed from 10% of small small businesses still had no plans to use channels like
business to 87% in the same time period, the largest podcasts, social bookmarking, geolocation, Q&A sites or
increase by far for any digital marketing technique. daily deals.
Social Media Examiner queried small-business marketers
around the world in January about how social media
helped their business: 89% cited increased exposure, 75%
increased traffic and 69% new marketplace insights. While
a relatively small 43% could say social media marketing
had definitely improved sales, a host of other benefits
including reduced marketing expenses, lead generation and
better search rankings were also mentioned.
Social Media Examiner also found the social marketing
needs of small businesses varied heavily based on whether
the businesses were consumer-facing or B2B. B2C
respondents said the most important social media tool for
them was Facebook, at 67%. By comparison, just 29%
eMarketer is the exclusive research partner
of B2B small-business marketers chose Facebook, and
of Google Partners Program. Agencies
an equal number chose LinkedIn. B2Bs were also more
use eMarketer benchmark data and
likely than B2Cs to report using LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs,
insights to validate recommendations and
Google+ and forum sites, while B2Cs were more focused
strategy which results in better pitches and
on Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest. %
increased revenue.
Change in the Use of Select Social Media Tools/
Find more eMarketer research and an
Platforms According to SMB Marketers Worldwide,
Jan 2013
exclusive PPT deck with key findings on
% of respondents
the SMB market at the Google Partners
YouTube/video
Program platform.
69% 17% 1% 13%
Facebook Get additional insights by subscribing to
66% 28% 3% 4%
the free eMarketer Daily newsletter here.
Blogs
66% 17% 1% 15%
LinkedIn
65% 21% 1% 13%
Twitter
64% 26% 2% 8%
Google+
53% 19% 1% 26%
Pinterest
51% 16% 1% 32%
Photo-sharing sites
38% 16% 1% 46%
Forums
29% 22% 1% 47%
Podcasts
24% 12% 1% 63%
Social bookmarking
17% 17% 1% 65%
Geo-location
16% 18% 2% 65%
Q&A sites
14% 11% 1% 74%
Daily deals
7% 11% 2% 80%
Increase Stay the same Decrease No plans to utilize
Note: in the near future; numbers may not add up to 100% due to rounding
Source: Social Media Examiner, "2013 Social Media Marketing Industry
Report," May 21, 2013
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