Social networking continues to grow
Small Business Watch surveys since 2007 have shown an increasing number of small businesses using the Internet to sustain and grow their businesses.
“Social networking for business purposes is growing,” [Ryan Scully, director of Discover's business credit card] said. “With such small operations, small business owners don’t need a long time to tell whether something is good or bad for business, so the social networking numbers will be the ones to watch.”
In 2007, 22 percent of small business owners told the Watch that they were members of an online social networking community such as Facebook, Linked-In, My Space or Twitter. Three years later, that number has more than doubled to 48 percent as of this month. Of those who are social networking, 55 percent say they have used it to promote their businesses, which is up from 45 percent in 2009.
In addition, 35 percent of small business owners who told the Watch that they promote their operations through social networking use four or five sites; 43 percent use two or three sites; 20 percent use one site; and 2 percent use more than five sites.
In terms of which networking opportunities they seek most, online sites moved into second place at 14 percent, a jump from 8 percent last year. Other networking avenues include:
- Local, in-person networking groups - 26 percent
- In person at conferences and organized events - 10 percent
- Chambers of Commerce or trade associations - 9 percent
- E-mail - 6 percent
- Other forms of networking - 15 percent
- Not sure - 21 percent
While the number of small business owners who have Web sites increased from 37 percent in 2009 to 45 percent in 2010, there are still many who say they don’t need one. Of the 55 percent of small business owners who don’t have a Web site, 57 percent say their businesses will never have one; 29 percent say they will; and 14 percent are not sure.
– excerpt from the Small Business Watch, April 2010
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