Facebook still may be the king when it comes to social media marketing for small businesses, but other social networking sites are making significant gains among small businesses owners and entrepreneurs, new research has found.
Overall, 80 percent of small business owners say they are using some form of social media marketing.
Those business owners have shown a preference for certain social platforms for marketing. Eighty-two percent of small business owners say Facebook is the most effective social media platform for their business, up from 75 percent in May 2012.
However, LinkedIn and Twitter saw the biggest perceived gains in effectiveness among small business owners. Twenty-nine percent of small business owners say LinkedIn is the most effective social media platform for their organization, up from 10 percent in May 2012. Twitter saw a similar gain, with 25 percent of small businesses saying it was effective, up from 7 percent in May 2012.
"The sharp increase in effectiveness ratings for both LinkedIn and Twitter is significant," said Mark Schmulen, general manager of social media for Constant Contact, which conducted the research. "While Facebook remains the dominant platform, small businesses are successfully expanding their engagement to reach audiences across multiple networks. This indicates another positive step in the social media adoption curve for small- and medium-sized businesses."
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