Study: SMBs receptive to political messages

Small businesses, the survey found, rate the economy as their top concern looking ahead.

How can the pols reach these voters? Not the traditional route, according to MerchantCircle. Television, researchers found, is the least likely way SMBs will be engaged by political advertising. Instead, many are turning to social media - Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn - to find and share information. Nearly one-quarter (23%) say 'political tweets are informative' while about half follow their candidates or parties of choice via Facebook.

Other interesting findings include:

• 15% of SMBs are undecided when it comes to how they'll vote in the election
• 60% say the economy is the top issue in the US
• 61% say they 'do not believe' the worst of the recession is past
• Republicans have been most effective at engaging SMBs to date

"Nearly 40% of respondents now say that Republicans are most supportive of small business interests, up from just 23% in October 2010. Just 25% said Democrats are most supportive (up slightly from 23% in October 2010), and 16% say that the Tea Party is most supportive (flat from October 2010). In general, all three parties have been effective at courting this audience: the number of small businesses who say they're unsure of which party is most supportive of their interests has dropped to just 16% (down from 37% in October 2010)," writes the company.

Tags: 2012 Presidential Election, advertising, MerchantCircle, political advertising, politics, small business trends, SMB