Soci@lByte

From the desk of Elaine Schoch…

At least according to a recent survey from Citibank Small Business of 500 U.S. businesses. Turns out three-quarters of small businesses say they have not found sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn helpful for generating business leads or expanding business in the past year.

However, a quarter of SMBs are using social media and 12 percent find social networking sites helpful. Unfortunately, the survey didn’t show year-over-year growth or go into a lot of depth regarding how SMBs are using social media since the questions were part of a larger survey. (RWW goes into this at length.)

Some of the largest businesses in the world (including Citibank) are still feeling their way around social media so it isn’t surprising that only a quarter of SMBs are testing the waters too. It is encouraging though.

Some of the SMBs I’ve seen using social media are doing so in a very innovative, grass roots kinda way. Take City Bark (a doggie daycare/groomer in Denver), I recently went to drop off my pups and saw a sign tapped to the cash register – “Post a Rating on YELP and Receive a Free Day of Doggie Daycare”. At $25 a day, who wouldn’t do that!

Then there is Hi_Rise, a sandwich/coffee shop near my office.  They tweet about what the soup of the day is, new breads they’re baking and even free muffins or cookies if you come in and tell them the Twitter password of the day. I haven’t spoken to the owner about the ROI he’s seen thus far but I will on the next free Twitter cookie day.

I’m interested to know what SMBs you’re seeing use social media, what tools they’re using and what is/not working…