Small biz turns to social media to reach customers

5/27/2011

With consumers looking to spend more money, small business owners are investing more of their budgets into marketing and advertising. According to a new survey conducted by Access Markets International, a New York-based intelligence firm, small business marketing budgets are set to grow by 4 percent.

Expenditures are driven largely by emerging advertising channels, such as social media, which small businesses tend to be slow to adopt. Access Markets International anticipates that social media budgets will grow a considerable 35 percent next year, with many companies shifting their print spend to sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

"Much of small business online marketing behavior is reflective of what they are accustomed to doing offline," notes Jacqueline Atkinson, research manager at AMI. "For instance, instead of printed directories, many U.S. SBs are now buying listings in online directories - while the source is new, the strategy is the same."

More than 150 million Americans are registered with Facebook, giving small business owners who leverage the platform a substantial audience of prospective buyers.