A new study from Constant Contact®, Inc. (NASDAQ: CTCT) reveals that almost 40 per cent of UK small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs) are using social media to market their business.
What’s more, the study suggests that nearly eight out of ten (79 per cent) of those currently using social media marketing expect to increase their use of the tool to drive business results in the next year. Of those not using social media marketing currently, 27 per cent plan to begin using it in the next year.
But many small businesses and nonprofits just don’t have the time to keep up and research all the options. Don’t you wish you had someone to tell you about the tools that are proven to be really easy and useful? We get it!
That's why last week we asked our Facebook fans, “What tool(s) do you use to help with your social media marketing on Facebook, Twitter, etc.?” Now, the results are in.
HootSuite was by far the no. 1 tool mentioned by our Facebook fan participants. If you haven’t heard of it, HootSuite is a free social media dashboard that you can use to manage and measure your social network activity. You can schedule Facebook messages and tweets, track brand mentions, and analyze your social media traffic.
Annette Iafrate, UK MD of Constant Contact, said:
“2012 will be the year that businesses see real results from social media marketing"
Following on from this, new tools and technologies will allow companies to better engage in order to build on their existing customer base and augment word-of-mouth recommendations.
“Customers are using their mobiles to research everything, from where to order flowers to where to find a cab. While we are still not at the results stage with mobile marketing, 2012 will see more companies using it to effectively target their customers. Small businesses need to address the fact that they can be located easily by mobile users.
“With the consumerisation of IT and the rising use of smart phones, targeting specific, local customers is also now much easier than it has been previously. Small business owners are time- and resource-starved and, as such, need advice on how to easily implement mobile tactics that can deliver true value to their companies.
“Deals and vouchers can now be tailored to exactly what each consumer wants, based on their behaviour across all channels. Most importantly, these promotions are now measurable, so business owners can see the return on their investment.”
