Small businesses taking advantage of social media

The benefits of social media are increasingly being realized by small businesses, a new report has suggested.

According to a recent study by marketing consulting agency Green Hat, smaller enterprises are more likely to adopt social media strategies than their larger counterparts.

The research revealed that on average small companies will allocate 29 per cent of their marketing budgets to digital marketing, compared to just 13 per cent of larger organizations, startupsmart.com reported.

"An interesting finding of this research is that a higher proportion of companies with larger marketing budgets - over $500,000 - don't use any social media," the report said.

Green Hat director Andrew Kent explained that social media offers a low-cost and flexible method of communication for businesses.

"For a smaller business, the senior managers or founders are often a fairly important part of the brand, so social media is a more natural fit for them,” Mr Kent added.

According to a recent report for MarketingWeb, the benefits of social media on B2C marketing can also apply to B2B strategies.

Posted by Richard Jones