49% of owners use a smartphone, for email, phone, and scheduling. Of them 35% own BlackBerrys, 33% own iPhones, and 25% own Androids. But according to Forrester Research lass than 20% of mobile users nationally owned smartphones. Presently, 40% of small business owners are using mobile phones for marketing or are planning to in the next 12 months.
According to other reports, there was a growth seen in online marketing methods for every quarter. 56% (48% in Q1 & Q2 in 2010) of merchants have now created a social networking profile. In Q3, 33% of small business merchants used Bing (23% in Q2 2010), 55% used LinkedIn ( 43% in Q2) and 32% used Yelp (22% in Q2) for promoting their services. Facebook usage among small businesses increased from 60% in the last quarter to 69%. 44% (38% in July 2010)were involved in email marketing campaigns. 13% (11% last quarter) have used online video and 19% plan to use next quarter.