Social Media Usage by US SMBs is Continuously Growing Since 2007

According to the e-Marketer, Social media usage by US SMBs is continuously growing since 2007. Currently half of the US SMBs are using social media for finding new customers. According to the American Express Open’s spring 2011 edition “Small Business Monitor”, usage of social media for marketing has increased from 2010. About 35% (up from 15% in 2009) of the US Small businesses reported online social networking sites usage for marketing and 12% (increased form 6% in 2009) of respondents were using blogs as one of the social media measure.

The reason behind this continuous increase in usage of social media was, social media is a perfect tool that is increasing the exposure of the business and adopting new customers. American Express OPEN has also found that majority of the small businesses were turning to social media for acquisition of new customers. From 39% in September 2010, the percentage increased to 44% in spring 2011, in the category of people who are using social media to help their business. SMBs were focusing on the top social networking sites for those efforts.

In the category of tools used for customer acquisition are, Facebook increased 8% points and accounted 35% in 2011 from 27% in 2010. Linked In increased 6% points and accounted 15% from 9% in 2010. Twitter also increased and ranked third. Not only these three, but also all social media sites have seen growth in 2011. And the other social media sites have decreased 5% and accounted 56% in 2011 from 61% in 2010.