Businesses Uncertain About Social Media Marketing

Small businesses are warming up to online social networking, but have yet to really embrace it, according to a new report. Access Marketing International (AMI) Partners Inc.’s “U.S. Small Business Marketing Activity and Spending Study” found that while a majority of small businesses are set up on at least one social media website such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, spending on social media marketing remains miniscule. Anil Miglani, senior vice president of AMI Partners, estimates the proportion of spending on social media in the “low single digits” of total marketing budgets. “For many small businesses, traditional methods account for a substantial part of their sales, and they don’t feel any compulsion to make drastic changes in their marketing activities,” says Miglani.
But he adds that among those business owners that have used social media for marketing, many have reported positive effects on sales and, “AMI expects a rapid growth in the use of social media by small businesses in the coming years and along with that, an increasing proportion of the their marketing dollars going to this medium.”