Local Businesses Find Social Media as Most Effective Marketing Channel, Says Study

Even though small businesses have found social media to be effective, one of the early setbacks with it was time. Social media is all about relationships, which can take a lot of time. This was difficult for businesses to grasp since they were used to speedy and scalable results from paid search.

Which produces better marketing results for you: social media or paid search? We’d love to know.

However, a study just released from Roost, a social marketing platform for small businesses, found that more than 71.4 percent of small businesses surveyed believe social media is more effective than paid search. Interestingly, only 15 percent of those surveyed found paid search as their most effective means of marketing.

What’s even more interesting is that 84.1 percent of local businesses found Facebook, specifically, to be the most effective channel. LinkedIn was second with 8.3 percent followed by Twitter with 7.6 percent.

The survey also revealed that only 0.5 percent of the respondents did not find marketing with social media to be effective at all.

While we know that economic issues helped to spur the popularity of social marketing, the survey further proved this theory since 46.1 percent of respondents said they use social media because it "saves me money." The next most popular reason for using social media for marketing was that "it’s a fun way to interact with people," with 45 percent checking this option. A very close third reason, with 44.8 percent of the votes, said social media "keeps me top of mind" with consumers.

The biggest problem that businesses had with social media was measuring it, with 45.1 percent saying it was their greatest challenge. Not knowing what content to push out through social media was also a challenge for small businesses, getting 38.5 percent of the votes.

So, how does this survey impact you? The biggest takeaway is that you need to be involved in social media, if you’re not already. It’s valuable, and it’s not going away. The channels might change, but consumers are now accustomed to being in control over brands.

Like the study indicated, social media takes time and has its challenges, but it’s very effective if you do it right. Are you tapping this market of opportunity?