According to Bedin Business Information Inc., Small Medium Business is taking a slow approach to the adoption of Web 2.0.
Only 14% expect that blogs will be very or extremely important, with similar ratings coming in for wikis (21%), social networking sites (22%) and webcasts (31%). At the same time, more traditional methods of delivering resource information ranked high, with 49% rating email newsletters as very or extremely valuable over the next five years, and 46% giving that ranking to interactive tools such as quizzes or calculators.39% of marketers rated blogs as very/extremely valuable over the next five years 14% for SMBs), and 67% rated webcasts as very/highly valuable 36% for SMBs.
This indicates a slow start but indicates a huge potential for growth once they become ‘aware’ of their importance.”SMBs are telling their vendors it is the message, not the medium, that matters,” said BBI CEO Stu Richards. “It is not surprising that SMBs have not yet warmed to Web 2.0 – they are typically not early adopters. While these formats offer tremendous potential to enhance relationships with SMBs, the challenge for marketers to use these methods effectively is to provide SMBs with relevant, actionable and easy-to-access information and advice.
Key findings from BBI’s report on SMBs and Web 2.0:
| • | SMBs don’t yet see the value of many Web 2.0 tools. When asked why they don’t use blogs, 57% said they don’t see the value, and 54% don’t see the value of social networking sites. |
| • | Regardless of the information format, SMBs most commonly look for information on accounting and finance (63%), technology/software (50%) and industry trends (46%). The least-sought topics were international business (20%), entrepreneurship/innovation (30%) and law (32%). |
| • | SMBs look to their vendors first for tools and information to help run their businesses. Thirty-one percent said they would be very likely to seek this information from their vendors’ websites, as opposed to the sites of trade associations (20%), government/non-profits (18%), colleges/universities (15%) and the media (13%). |
| • | Nearly half of SMBs (48%) begin their search for business help on a search engine. Thirty-three percent go to sites they know have good resources, and 19% go straight to the sites of their current vendors. |
Have you ever tried to use Internet Marketing tools such as Google Adwords?
(polls)
1 Comment
March 3, 2009 at 2:12 pm
First blog I read after wakeup from sleep today!
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Search fast!