Citibank – Bright, shiny objects!

In a sign that small businesses are finally emerging from the recession and looking to grow, an increasing number of business owners are adopting social media as a way to better market their business and reach more customers, according to the latest Citibank small business survey. The increased use of social media represents one of several findings in Citibank’s survey that shows small businesses are taking concrete action to grow in 2011.

According to the survey, use of social media increased significantly over the last year, with 36 percent of small business owners saying they use social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn to market their business, compared to just 19 percent a year ago.

Additionally, when asked what steps they will take to attract more business in 2011, 68 percent of small business owners say they will increase marketing and 54 percent say they will offer new products and services. Of those who plan to do business in a larger geographic area this year (38 percent), 49 percent plan regional expansion, 18 percent plan national expansion, and 16 percent are looking toward international expansion.

“As one of the main drivers of job creation and economic growth in the United States, small businesses are crucial to a robust and sustained recovery,” said Raj Seshadri, the head of Small Business Banking at Citibank. “We are thrilled to find that many small businesses believe the time is right to expand their business and find new customers, and at Citibank, we are committed to helping them succeed and grow.”

via businesswire.com

Interesting information from Citibank that indicates social media is becoming more and more mainstream for small business. Personally? I think the reason why is that smart business owners know that social media is one of those activities that takes more time than money — while both are scarce, owners are willing to get more efficient at some activities so that they can effectively engage in others. Comment below or ‘connect’ above to discuss how this applies to you and your organization…

Just because you’re a small business, doesn’t mean you can’t leverage social media — in fact, it’s quite the opposite…

“Social Media impacts every business, every brand, and in doing so, connects a network of distributed communities of influence, making the world a much smaller place in the process. Small businesses are in fact at an advantage in Social Media Marketing as they can focus on hyper-local activity that can offer immediate rewards or at the very least, the real-time feedback or lack thereof says everything about next steps.

A recent survey conducted by Citibank offers a contrary point of view, citing small business executives who believe social networks offer no benefit or promise to expanding their business. This isn’t all that uncommon however. The truth is that without knowledge or direct experience, it’s virtually impossible to envision the potential of something where they’re most likely absent as a consumer themselves.” Source: The Socialization of Small Business | Brian Solis

The article goes on to say…

“Ad-ology published its “Small Business Marketing Forecast 2010″ report that revealed that among the other benefits of social media, lead generation is the biggest benefit of online networking. Other benefits ranked as follows…” Source: The Socialization of Small Business | Brian Solis

You’ll have to go to the source to get the complete ranked list. Comment, call or contact me to discuss how this applies to your business!

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