While just over half of small-to-medium businesses regularly use social media in their day-today activities, the number jumps to four out of five among engineering and technical firms.
According to a survey of 269 companies undertaken by Darryl Willcox Publishing, some 35% of SMBs updated social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter on a daily basis in a bid to promote their businesses. A quarter did so every few days, while 17% did so weekly.
The most popular reasons for using social media including networking (68%), attracting new customers (63%) and raising brand awareness (61%). But in contrast to big brands, 83% of respondents said they did not use incentives such as money-off vouchers to attract followers, friends or fans.
Nonetheless, three out of five believed that social media was having a positive impact on their business, 46% claimed an increase in brand awareness and just over a third said they had attracted new customers.
Although the proportion of SMBs using the channel has doubled since December 2009, more than two thirds of those questioned said they had been using the channel for less than a year. Some 73% favoured LinkedIn, followed by Facebook (64%) and Twitter (63%).
Of those that had not got involved in social media, however, just over third blamed lack of time, 31% said their customers did not use it and just under a quarter did not understand it.
A second study undertaken by specialist engineering and technical recruitment consultancy CBSbutler, meanwhile, revealed that a huge 81% of its clientele use social networking sites in their day-to-day business.
Of those that did so, some 44% engaged with LinkedIn, 19% used Facebook and about the same tweeted. LinkedIn-only users said they employed the channel because it was ‘becoming the norm’, but they did not consider Facebook and Twitter to be ‘suitable professional forums’.
David Leyshon, managing director of CBSbutler, said: “Whilst it is no surprise that LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site, it is interesting to see that less than half are making use of the benefits it provides for business. It is also a shock to see that 19% of businesses we surveyed use no web-based networking platforms.”
It may be that companies know they should be using some form of social media but are unaware of the benefits, he added.
“Companies should have a clear strategy in place and look at the options available – it is imperative to have aims and objectives in mind to get the best result for your company,” Leyshon said.
