Social media continues to be a must when it comes to small business marketing programs -- but small business owners increasingly find that social media takes up a lot of their time.
A new survey of small business owners by VerticalResponse, a firm that provides self-service marketing solutions, showed that 25 percent of respondents spend 6 to 10 hours per week on social media, with 63 percent of CEOs or owners spending 1 to 5 hours per week on social media. Meanwhile, one-third of CEOs/owners say they want to spend less time on social media. Compared to a year ago, 66 percent are spending more time on social media.
The most time-consuming aspect of social media, according to the survey, is finding and posting content. Learning and education is the next most time-consuming, followed by analyzing efforts.
When it comes to spending money by small business on social media, four times the number of small businesses have increased their social media budget, versus those that have decreased their budget. In comparison, only two times the number of small businesses have increased their overall marketing budgets.
In terms of social media most used, 90 percent of small businesses are on Facebook, and nearly 70 percent of them use Twitter. LinkedIn is not used by 50 percent of small businesses; 68 percent of small businesses do not use Google+ and 71 percent of small businesses do not use Pinterest.
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