How Social Media is Used in Small Business Industry?

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Social media has set in a new wave in the business world. As per the recent study carried out by Internet Advertising Bureau UK, a business having social media presence is likely to attract 80 percent more customers in future (The Guardian, 2013). Especially, for small businesses having limited time and budgetary constraints, it is important to chart out an effective social media marketing policy to give the required boost to the business expansion. There are different purposes for different small scale business organizations to use social media. Major ones are discussed holistically in the essay. Maintaining the Organization's Presence and Identity A survey carried out by a professional Social Media Company, involving 998 small and mid size businesses in North America, revealed that around 94 percent used it for marketing purposes. They found it the best way to maintain the organization's identity and existence online (Yeung, 2014). Corporate identity is among the top priorities, no matter whether the business is a small scale or lists in the elite echelon. Having profile pages on different platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter helps the businesses to stay connected with the existing customers. The best aspect of social media is that it gives an opportunity of direct engagement with the clients. With Facebook having around 1.2 billion members and Twitter having 250 million active users monthly, it is obviously the best channel for startups to raise awareness about their products, create connection and engaging with customers to drive revenues (Benwell, 2014). A recent research report from Ad-ology states that in 2014, small businesses are expected to spend more on building online presence via active engage... ... middle of paper ... ...alVox (2014) LocalVox, Jan, [Online], Available: http://localvox.com/resources/small-business-marketing-statistics/#socialmedia [10 March 2014]. Mershon, P. (2011) socialmediaexaminer, 8 November, [Online], Available: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/26-promising-social-media-stats-for-small-businesses/ [12 March 2014]. Swipely Team (2013) swipely, 08 April, [Online], Available: https://www.swipely.com/blog/how-social-media-has-changed-marketing-for-small-business/ [13 March 2014]. The Guardian (2013) theguardian, 29 August, [Online], Available: http://www.theguardian.com/small-business-network/2013/aug/29/social-media-boost-business-tips [13 March 2014]. Yeung, K. (2014) thenextweb, 13 Feb, [Online], Available: http://thenextweb.com/insider/2014/02/13/linkedin-report-says-small-businesses-becoming-astute-users-social-media-marketing/#!zwNn0 [15 March 2014].

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