Mediaboss Marketing

Manta's survey of 4,700 small businesses in the U.S. (fewer than 10 employees) found that only 49% had a Facebook Page. The main objectives for having a Facebook presence were cited as being awareness, attract new customers (by phone or by website traffic), and customer retention.

However, half of those SMBs with a Facebook Page were seeing a positive ROI, found Mantra. This might be explained by other findings of the survey such as 58% spending less than an hour a week on Facebook marketing and only 9% posting daily (the majority (58%) posting "a few times a month").

Manta interviewed social media experts to come up with answers to common questions asked by business owners about Facebook. Regarding the topic of post frequency, Allison Baker, social media and marketing coordinator for H2O Media Inc., recommended one to three times per day.

"You don't want to bombard your followers, but you don't want them to forget about you either," advised Baker. "Having a consistent, daily presence is extremely important on social media. Even if you're only posting something like an inspirational quote, your followers will still see your business name and logo, and this will keep you top of mind."

Earlier this year a survey of small businesses by B2B ratings and review firm, Clutch, found that many small business owners are not using social media, instead harking back to marketing headlines from several years ago that expressed doubt in the value of Likes or Tweets.

"They are missing out because of their own viewpoint on the topic, [made] from believing five- to six-year-old headlines and not recapturing the maturation of the space," said Joshua Dirks, CEO of Project Bionic, a Seattle-based creative marketing agency.

Tags: marketing, research, small business, social media

Original post:
51% of U.S. SMBs have no Facebook Page - Social Marketing ... - BizReport