Surprising regions lead in social media adoption. Click on the map to view at a larger size. Source: Zoomerang.
Could it be that the Great Plains is outpacing the West Coast in social media adoption by small and medium sized businesses? Yes, it is possible.
Zoomerang, the online survey people, did a survey of more than 500 small and medium business decision makers. The results were released June 15, 2011.
“Less-populated areas or cities with a strong small business presence are relying more and more on cost-effective mass-communication tools for business news, customer support and acquisition, as well as networking,” said Alex Terry, General Manager of Zoomerang. “For people immersed in technology driven cultures, such as Silicon Valley, this data may come as a surprise, but I believe they can learn from less-technology enriched regions.”
Translation: small town people can teach big city people a thing or two about building community online.
Most small businesses are not on social networks yet
- Nationally, 75 % of those surveyed said their business did not yet have “branded social media sites, like a company Facebook page or Twitter handle.”
Great Plains and Southest most active on social
- The regions with the highest percentage on social media were the Great Plains at 30% and Southeast at 28%.
- Decision makers for businesses within the Great Plains (22%) and Southeast (28%) are also among the most active via social media on behalf of their company
- The New England/NY region showed the lowest percentage of social media adopters.
Few have policies in place
- While 23% of small businesses nationally said their business is active on social media, only 15% said they have a social media policy for employees.
- Another 14% said they were either in process or evaluating. I suspect that means a lot of people know they ought to have one, but don’t want to admit they haven’t done it yet.
- Interestingly, 6% said they had fired an employee for misuse of social media.
Resources
- Here’s the press release: Social Media Adoption Among Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses Strongest in the Southeast and Great Plains.
- And here’s the infographic.
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Wow, excellent blog post with some awesome data here. I work a lot with small businesses in Pennsylvania and New York state, so it’s great to see that folks in other less-populated areas are adhering to what I tell clients about the importance of social media! It truly is a huge opportunity for small business owners to connect to current and future customers. Love the infographic!