According to a recent survey, 70 percent of small businesses reported that they are already using social media for marketing. Indeed, over a third cited creating a profile on a social network as one of the top three most effective marketing methods. Over the last year, there was a 50 percent increase in the number of small businesses using social media, and in that same year more than half of the businesses surveyed claimed they spent less than $2,500 a year on marketing. Hmm, interesting. Let’s dig in.

These findings are not really surprising given (a) the cultural takeover of social media in the past two years, and (b) the fact that social media marketing, at least the type most small businesses utilize — Facebook fan pages and Twitter — involves far less out-of-pocket costs than TV, print or radio. In fact, I would speculate that most small businesses are now using social media as one of their primary marketing tools and claiming it’s effective mainly because it has such a low barrier to entry and little or no up-front costs. Continue reading below.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-ball/do-you-know-how-social-me_b_826802.html