A recent survey from CompTIA, a trade association in the IT industry, revealed some interesting behavior from the Small & Medium Business (SMB) community. If you’re like our clients, you’re very interested in how your channel partners are using social media to reach their customers. Obviously, SMB’s are active users of our clients’ Ad-Builder/MarCom portals so this is particularly interesting to us.
Three key findings:
1) 35% of respondents are already using social media
2) Another 30% are planning to start using social media in the next 12 months
3) Of those socially active SMBs, almost half (44%) employ someone whose primary job is social media
Saving the best for last, here is a ranked listing of SMB motivations for using social media:
Notice that the top two motivations listed are “Communicate special offers” and “Build brand awareness” which are primary goals for any marketing department. Given this shared motivation, shouldn’t your Ad-Builder actually help your channel partners develop and leverage social media?
It’s a simple choice. You can either leave it all up to your channel partners and sometimes cringe at the results; or you can help them with best practices, professionally created content and guidance through your Ad-Builder for better results. Either way, it’s clear that SMBs are jumping in with both feet.