Small firms question the value of social media

Published: 14 October, 2010

More than half of Britain's small to medium-sized businesses use social media, a new survey has found.

Through its latest Referendum ballot, the Forum of Private Business discovered that 52% of its members now use websites like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

However, of that 52%, over half (27%) expressed serious doubts about the value of the popular networking sites. A surprising 21% described them as "not useful" and 6% went even further, labelling them "useless".

Only 7% of respondents who use social media described it as "very useful" for their businesses, with 18% opting for a more muted "useful" description.

Commenting on the findings, Forum spokesman Phil McCabe, said: "It's clear that, while a lot of our members are certainly trying out social media for their businesses, many remain unconvinced of its benefits.

"We believe that social media does hold a great deal of potential for many small to medium-sized enterprises. Its conversational, real-time nature makes it ideal for entrepreneurs and small, dynamic firms which often have much more relaxed attitudes towards public relations than big corporations. Also, sites like Twitter can provide valuable and cost-free feedback on customer and client satisfaction."

The Forum is currently hosting a series of free breakfast networking events for business owners across the country themed around web awareness and internet technologies. The next event, which is being held for business owners in the North East, takes place on October 19 at the Hilton Hotel in Gateshead. For more information go to www.fpb.org.

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