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Social media footprint is important for SMEs

Sarah Stowe

Sensis released figures from an annual survey that looked at how Australians – and by extension Australian businesses – use social media.

The report surveyed 800 consumers along with 1100 businesses, which covered things like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ use. Online blogs and review services such as Yelp were also included as drawing points in the Sensis report.

It found that 61 percent of small to medium enterprises (SMEs) don’t know how much they spend on social media campaigns each year, with the small figure of 17 percent knowing how much they actively receive on their return on investments (RTOs).

Social media footprint declined

But surprisingly the percentage of SMEs with a social media footprint declined from 37 percent in 2014 to 31 percent in 2015. Still, however, this year’s number is up a considerable amount from 2012’s figure of 27 percent.

If there’s one way to capture your audience when they’re busy getting on with their day it’s through social media, and Sensis figures back up this notion: 68 percent of the wider population use social media sites on a daily basis.

So when you draw comparisons to SMEs and their use of social media with the everyday person’s use, there is an obvious discrepancy between the two subjects.

Consumers not only spend a lot of their time on social media throughout the day – on their smartphone, desktop or laptop – but they make a lot of their spending decisions there as well.

While managing a wide digital footprint can be laborious it is indeed a cost-effective way to reach masses or a more specific, targeted audience.

It’s marketing of today and it’s more than merely worth it for SMEs. It’s imperative, integral and pivotal.

For a get-rich-quick lesson on how to enhance your businesses’s social media effectiveness, check out these steps.

Important to remember: building a wide social media following takes time and seeing monetary rewards from social media marketing does, too.

Just be patient and trust the process because once you strike success on these platforms it’s hard to look back and understand the times your business functioned without a digital footprint.