Social media plays vital role in region’s businesses, says report

SOCIAL media is a vital tool for the region’s businesses, according to a report by internet marketing and social media agency Optimum Exposure.

The Leeds-based agency carried out the survey to find out how different sized companies in Yorkshire use social media in their business and what return on investment they see from campaigns.

The report found that the main difference was in how SMEs versus large companies were using social media in their businesses.

SMEs (one to 49 employees) feel that social media has been responsible for creating or helping create sales or new business.

LinkedIn is a more important business tool to small businesses, reflected in the fact that more of the key people within a small business are promoting themselves on LinkedIn compared to medium or large organisations, the report found.

Eight-two per cent of respondents said they used LinkedIn to promote their business with 67% saying their key individuals were using LinkedIn to promote their business.

Forty-seven per cent said they updated their LinkedIn profile weekly.

The report found that companies are using tools such as blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn more than video content such as YouTube.

Eighty-two per cent of respondents said they used Twitter as part of their business to find customers and new business, with 57% saying they updated their Twitter account daily.

Companies overall are using social media to boost their PR activity with 75%saying that social media had been responsible for creating positive PR about the company and 40% reporting that social media had helped mitigate any PR problems.

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Charlotte Britton, managing director of Optimum Exposure, said: “Social Media is becoming a core part of the marketing mix. Companies that are adopting the technologies and techniques are creating a competitive advantage for themselves as more people are using sites such as Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs.

“Companies need to understand the objectives and metrics for success
before embarking on any activity, so they know what success looks like as the campaign grows.”