More than 600,000 small businesses will deploy integrated social networking services in the next 12 months—up from about 300,000 currently, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International Partners. In percentage terms, 300,000 represents about 5% of the total number of SBs in the U.S. “As social networking evolves, we can see the emergence of targeted offerings for business users,” says Nikki Lamba, New York-based analyst at AMI Partners. “In order to attract a greater share of SBs, social networking services must provide customized services that SBs can leverage in order to realize their business goals.”
SBs form an emerging audience for social networking services. While the proliferation of these services among the general public has been extraordinary, SBs remain a largely untapped opportunity—what could amount to a small boon for those willing to seek them out during these troubled economic times.
In response to this gap, social networking services are creating branches dedicated to SBs and entrepreneurs. Examples of this include Linked-In Company Groups, Moli Small Business Center and Ryze.com. Features extended to business users are heightened security to ensure stricter privacy controls, facilitation of businesses relationships among users and knowledge sharing based on experiences.
The study also points out that over the next 12 months about 500,000 SBs will use social networking as a resource for advertising and promotional activities. As the number of social networking sites continues to multiply, particularly those aimed at SBs, the prospects of targeted advertising continue to remain positive. SBs can also tailor their social networking to create a stronger brand for their business and allow for communities to form around their product or service offering.
“As SBs struggle with the current economic downturn, business-focused social networking offers an effective, relatively inexpensive and lucrative opportunity to keep steady communication with existing partners and clients as well as incubating new relationships,” says Ms. Lamba. “A growing number of businesses are already riding the wave and stand to gain from continued usage of social networking for business purposes. Those businesses not currently using social networking services will find that the resources available will be especially useful in competing under current market conditions.”
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November 14th, 2008 at 4:38 am
[...] More than 600000 small businesses will deploy integrated social networking services in the next 12 months—up from about 300000 currently, according to the latest study by New York-based Access Markets International Partners. … Original post [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
This is extremely true and I already am seeing niche networking sites coming out that focus on small business growth. Referral Key for example focuses on small businesses building a trusted online network in order to manage and exchange referrals. The site seems exactly what any small business owner would want in a networking site, and I plan on using it more extensively to gain trusted referrals for my own small business.