SMBs are approaching social media with the wrong aims and objectives according to new research out this week from WeCanDo.biz and they aren’t being helped by the way more business-focused networks like Linkedin are structured.
The survey reveals that 64% of businesses signed up to social network sites to get more business, ahead of meeting interesting new people (11%), sharing knowledge and other resources (6%) and finding out what people were saying about the business (5%). Career development was back on 3%.
The survey found that while nearly a quarter of small businesses are using Twitter for business networking, 39% are wary of using Facebook for business reasons and refuse to add business contacts as friends. Just under half (48%) conduct their professional networking on specifically business focused social networks such as LinkedIn, Ecademy and Xing.
Ian Hendry, founder and CEO of WeCanDo.biz feels business-focused networks are failing businesses looking to get involved in social media: ”What motivates entrepreneurs is real business. They want online networks to broker introductions to other professionals with a need for what they do. It may be a function of the recession that business people now expect a much more tangible return from the time they invest online.
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