More Small Businesses Using Social Media Successfully

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According to “The State of Small Business Report” from Network Solutions and the Center for Excellence in Service at the University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business, social media usage has increased from 12% to 24% in the last year.

The most popular social media tactic was having a company page on a social networking site like Facebook. Next was the posting of status updates and/or articles.

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There seemed to be a discrepancy between expectations of the performance of social media tactics and actual accomplishments. This could be due to small businesses taking social media as a silver bullet, which it is not. We can’t expect social media to give you favorable ROI overnight. It takes at least 6 months to a year for the results to take shape. To be successful in social media marketing, you need to put a lot of time and effort into it, and understand fully that it’s not just about monetary ROI.

As you can see below, most businesses are only breaking even at current impact, but 45% are expecting to make a profit in the next 12 months. Only 9% think that it would continue to lose them money.

If you are a small business thinking of trying out social media, there’s one thing you really need to know to be a social media winner. See how small businesses succeed on social media here.