Member Article

Social media still an underused resource

Social media is becoming an increasingly important resource for businesses – but many are still unsure how to use it.

Only 17% of entrepreneurs surveyed by Andrum Consulting saw their businesses grow by more than 25% due to social media, but 40% believed that sites like Facebook made no contribution at all.

Andrum Consulting completed the survey to encourage businesses to develop strategies, scope markets and source finance in order to utilise social media effectively.

Many businesses find it difficult to decipher how social media can help their business. While larger businesses focus heavily on reputation management issues involved in social media, smaller companies can benefit from the low entry costs and the opportunity build their brand and a wide fan base.

David Clayton-Smith, partner at Andrum consulting said: “We’re not completely surprised by the findings, after all many seasoned well established brands are struggling to work out how it fits in.”

“But it is disappointing to note that some of our most innovative businesses are missing out completely on the potential which social media affords and aren’t even attempting to come up with a strategy.”

30% of businesses surveyed cited not enough time as a reason for not using social media, while 82% do not have a training budget for this type of marketing.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .