Why even in today’s tech savvy world where everyone has a facebook/twitter profile aren’t more small business utilising social media to increase the sales and bring brand awareness. It’s something I just can’t understand.
Since leaving the armed forces in 1984 I have been self employed and owned a number of businesses until becoming a internet marketer in 1996. If I ran any of my older businesses today which consisted of video/games shops, vending rounds, sports shop and a couple of other ventures I would be using social media to promote those businesses.
I decided a few months ago to do a little market research of local businesses in my area which just to make you aware we are located in a small town so there wasn’t really a lot of research to work on but we researched a five mile wide circle of where we are located and the results truly shocked me.
We spoke to 28 businesses that ranged from pizza shops to carpet shops, small bakeries to a glass manufacturer and this was the results we found.
Out of the 28 businesses only 8 had a internet site out of those 8 only 4 where on their own domain and hosting. So if I wanted to I had 24 local businesses that where possible customers if I wished to sell them hosting, design a basic package to get them online.
Out of the 28 there was only one business that was using social media to market his business and that was a local taxi driver, 27 potential customers right there for me to help get there business bringing in more sales and brand awareness through social media.