Email marketing firm Inbox Insight recently questioned 500 small commercial property business owners and MDs on the subject of their organisations’ social media plans and strategies.
The study reveals that almost 73 per cent of commercial property organisations currently use social media, and 59 per cent of commercial property small businesses will be making additional investments in social media in 2012, with just 3 per cent of organisations shifting away from online platforms.
Small commercial property businesses are becoming more relaxed with social media marketing, and are beginning to use it more to engage with their clients. While 24 per cent of people asked said that improved customer engagement was their core priority for using social media within their establishment, 26 per cent state that they want to use it to increase brand awareness.
Managing Director at Inbox Insight, David Clark said: “Small businesses have begun to realise how important social media is to organisations. Customers want businesses to interact with them, whether that’s via email, phone or social media platforms. It’s a great example of how small businesses can take advantage of their smaller scale and make a bigger impact through the use of these online tools.”
Facebook remains the platform of choice for small commercial property businesses with 55 per cent reporting to use the tool, Linkedin follows closely behind in second place at 48 per cent and Twitter is used by 40 per cent of the respondents surveyed. YouTube, Google+ and Blogs were all used by 17 per cent of the survey respondents and just 3 per cent of those surveyed use social bookmarking sites.
Of the 500 respondents the survey revealed that 135 commercial property organisations weren’t currently using social media, nevertheless these respondents noted that they will be investing in social media over the next year. When asked why it had not yet been applied 25 per cent stated that they didn’t have adequate knowledge, while 25 per cent said they simply just didn’t have the time. Other factors for evading the set-up of social media included fears regarding security (4 per cent) and too many sites and accounts to manage (6 per cent).
Small commercial property businesses are learning that social media marketing can help them to grow their customer relationships; 85 per cent devote up to 10 per cent of their marketing spend on social media, and 8 per cent spend up to 20 per cent. Just 0.1 per cent of those asked spend over 50 per cent of their marketing budget on social media.
Small business owners and directors are still fixated on using other forms of digital and direct marketing, with 49 per cent of respondents saying that they would be interested in guides, whitepapers and email bulletins to support their social media strategy. 
Meanwhile separate surveys carried out by Touch Local in the publishing of their new 2011 Local Business Report have thrown up some thought-provoking statistics.
Findings in the report show that small commercial property business owners are now firmly of the belief that no one under the age of 50 will be using print directories by the end of 2012.
The report also shows that small commercial property business entrepreneurs are putting their money where their mouth is; with an overwhelming 93 per cent of them planning on cutting their advertising spend in print directories in 2012.
With small to medium sized businesses (SMEs) accountable for almost sixty per cent of the country’s private sector employment, giving commercial property business owners an opportunity to have their say is vital.
Data for the report had been complied during 2011 via weekly surveys answered by many of the country’s most noteworthy small and medium sized commercial property businesses. These surveys formed the foundation of an informative forum, through which commercial property business owners could have their say on topics including the economy, business and general developments in their own sector.
Author of the report, Ivelina Arabadzhieva, explains, one section of the report highlights a stark fact about how UK SME’s plan to advertise in 2012.
Ivelina said: “One section of our report feeds back on how businesses intent to advertise in the future, in order to help everyone predict the upcoming trends.”
She further added: “As our data shows, it seems that more and more businesses plan to move away from traditional print advertising, instead turning their attention to digital and new media channels.”
In fact, the statistics speak for themselves, with 96 per cent of commercial property business owners reported that they plan to spend more on social media advertising in 2012, with 52 per cent planning to spend less on print advertising placements.
According to Ivelina, data such as this, allows everyone to prepare for what the coming year will bring.
She added: “We diligently collect data all year in order to produce our end-of-year report. It isn’t for fun-the trends and habits that we can predict will allow all businesses to prepare for a busy and profitable 2012, as well as get a heads-up on which elements of their operation could use a little more attention.”
