{"id":586,"date":"2013-02-12T09:42:27","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T09:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2013-02-12T09:42:27","modified_gmt":"2013-02-12T09:42:27","slug":"small-business-owners-say-linkedin-aids-not-so-for-twitter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/small-business-owners-say-linkedin-aids-not-so-for-twitter\/","title":{"rendered":"LinkedIn most useful social network say small business owners"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WSJ<\/a>Small business owners \u2013 six out of 10 – believe social media channels a<\/a>re valuable to their company\u2019s growth and LinkedIn tops the list. In a recent survey <\/a>of 385 small business owners conducted by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International, 41 percent cited LinkedIn as potentially beneficial to their company. Only three percent thought Twitter offered the most potential. The other two social media networks that small business owners consider useful to the growth of their companies are YouTube, chosen by 16 percent of respondents, and Facebook cited by 14 percent.<\/p>\n

When it comes to helping small business, Twitter\u2019s Achilles\u2019 heel may be its 140 characters, which make it difficult to convey a company\u2019s messages, the WSJ points out.\u00a0 Other small business owners depend on strong images to set them apart and Twitter is not effective in supporting visuals. Some companies find that Twitter serves them best as a surveillance tool to keep on top of market developments.<\/p>\n

Social media valuable but time for it is limited<\/strong><\/p>\n

While small businesses believe in the value of social media, they have limited time and money to figure out the best ways to leverage it. Just four in 10 business owners surveyed reported that they have employees dedicated to social media campaigns. Nearly half of them spend between one and five hours each week on social media and one third spend no time at all.<\/p>\n

Be effective on your social media channels<\/strong><\/p>\n

Back in December, I wrote<\/a> about how to be effective on social media, whatever channel you employ. Here are the suggestions again, with some additional input:<\/p>\n

Invest the time and energy: Posting something about your product on Facebook once a week is not going to build an engagement with your customers. Post several times a week.<\/p>\n

Aim to engage with entertaining, educational and informative content:<\/p>\n