Small Business Marketing News
Savvy Small Business Owners See Benefit In Social Media
Written by Jenna Weiner
Published: 9/9/2011
Social media can drive up sales and increase customer retention for small and medium-sized businesses.
Social media not only offers small businesses a cost-efficient way to reach out to new customers and promote products and services digitally, but it is a free medium through which owners and employees and interact with customers to collect feedback and make them feel appreciated. Such initiatives can enhance consumer loyalty and increase repeat purchases.
The recent U.S. SMB Spending Forecast by BIA/Kelsey showed small and medium-sized businesses will continue to increase their time and budgets for digital advertising and social media in the next five years. The research predicts SMBs will devote 70 percent of their marketing budgets to digital/online/social media by 2015.
"With the advent of daily deals to drive customer acquisition, SMBs are now increasingly focused on leveraging technological solutions to engage, grow and retain a higher percentage of their customers," said Neal Polachek, president of BIA/Kelsey.
SnapRetail is one example of a small business that has embraced social media and is reaping the benefits. The online retailer was recently awarded third place on the 2011 Top 10 Small Business Facebook Pages by Social Media Examiner.
"We find that independent retailers are hungry for easy-to-understand information on Facebook to use in their own businesses," said Crystal Vilkaitis, director of social media at SnapRetail. "So we load SnapRetail's Facebook page with lots of how-to's for our customers."
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