Almost one-quarter SMBs use Twitter for advertising and promotion, up from 22% last year and 16% the year before, according to newly-released data from BIA/Kelsey. SMBs may be gravitating to Twitter advertising in greater numbers due to its increasing value: this year, 31.1% of those advertising on Twitter perceived their ROI as “excellent” (10-19 times spend; 18.8%) or “extraordinary” (20+ times spend; 12.3%), up from 25% of advertisers in last year’s survey and 17.1% in 2011.
More SMBs are also reporting higher quality leads from Twitter: in this latest survey, 25.7% rated the quality of lead sources from Twitter as “good” or “excellent,” versus 22.8% in last year’s survey. Among the 33.8% of SMBs who use Twitter, 47% reported posting updates on a daily basis, with another 31% updating on at least a weekly basis.
Earlier this year, Twitter released research trumpeting the connections that can be forged between SMBs and their followers, indicating, for example, that 85% of SMB followers say they feel more connected with the businesses after following them.
Twitter isn’t the only social vehicle generating returns for some SMBs, though. The BIA/Kelsey data also indicates that among SMBs spending with 3rd parties to create, brand and update their Facebook pages, 34.1% considered the return generated from those efforts to be “excellent” or “extraordinary,” up from 29.4% last year and 25.3% in 2011’s survey.
