Reports: Social, Cloud offering assist to small businesses
First, from Carbonite, an infographic which shows how the cloud is helping small businesses better balance their needs. According to the report most (97%) are using cloud services of some sort to save time and money. However, 80% report they’re not ‘taking full advantage’ of cloud offerings.
Still, all isn’t rosy for small business owners, who report even with the cloud options, business can get in the way of personal commitments. About one-third report work still causes problems with their significant other, 80% say there is a place at home where they ‘escape to work’ and more than half say they’ve missed personal commitments – like kid’s recitals or events – because they have too much work.
Meanwhile, SiteApps recent study found most small businesses are focused on Facebook. According to the report 41% of SMBs believe Facebook is the most influential of the social networks. Just over half say social marketing wasn’t part of their marketing strategy in 2012, but say that social will be a much-used channel in 2013.
On the down side, the report found that many small business websites aren’t using analytics tools to improve on-site experience, revenue or reach.
Phillip Klien, CEO of SiteApps said, “Especially shocking is how few small businesses utilize tools like Google Analytics to measure their website performance – that’s like flying blind in a storm. There’s a clear need here for simple, non-technical online marketing solutions.”
The survey was conducted by the Incyte Group.
