social customer management

i l t t

Special report on social media usage and 
Special report on social media usage and
trends by small and medium business

Fall 2010

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 Overview

• 126 small business owners took an online survey about their 
sales, marketing, and social media activity

• The key findings are available here to all survey participants

• If you have any questions or would like to learn more about 
Hearsay, please email me: Jon Cheek, jon@hearsaylabs.com

• Thanks again for your participation in our survey!

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 Industries Represented
Industry # Responses Industry # Responses
Alcohol (wine, breweries) 2 Insurance  2
Apparel 2 Massage / Spa / Beauty 2
Artists & Studios 1 Music stores 2
Bars and nightlife 3 Nonprofit 2
Boutique retailer 4 OTHER* 18
Consulting  11 Performing arts 1
E‐commerce 7 Photographers 4
Electronics & Computers
Electronics & Computers 3 Real Estate
Real Estate 5
Event planning 2 Retaurants 4
Financial Advisor  3 Sports / adventure equipment 6
Food and Beverage 3 Training / Fitness 5
Food Delivery 3 Vehicle / bike sales 4
Home & Garden 6 Web Design 4
Hotel 1 Total 110*

The survey included responses from small businesses in 27 different industries
* Total does not include 16 respondents who did not reveal industry.  Other includes: energy, automotive, telecommunications, medical, dating 
coaches, office furniture, personal concierge, directories, enterprise software, magazines, training, and unknown
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 Business Size 

Annual Revenues Number of Employees

Number of Customers per Year

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 Customer Data

What Customer Data do you Track? How Useful Would this Data be if you had it?

Not
None 9% 3%
Useful
19% 18%
Somewhat 28%
40% 44% Useful
Some 38%
44%
50%

Very
53% 48% 69%
Useful
Most 53%
38%
31%
6% 8%
Last  Interests  Recent events  Last  Interests  Recent events 
communication  or hobbies in their lives communication  or hobbies in their lives
with customer with customer

40‐44% of businesses have no data on customer interests/hobbies and recent 
events, yet ~80% say this data would be very or somewhat useful
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 How Do You Track Customer Data?
Count of Respondents Who Use These Programs to Track Customer Data
(multiple responses possible)
(multiple responses possible)
44

33

26

13 12
11 10
5 5
3

Excel Quickbooks Outlook "Heavy"  Salesforce Google  "Heavy"  Filemaker Other None / 
database  Docs / CRM (Act,  Paper
program analytics Zoho, 
Sugar...)
• Excel and Quickbooks dominate, followed by Outlook, Salesforce, or “nothing”
• Most “Other” programs are industry‐specific
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 How Much Marketing Do You Do Across Each of 
The Following Channels?
The Following Channels?
118 118 118 118 118
100%
14%
21%
34%
None 45% 42%
21%
29%

36% 36%
Low 27% 29%
29%

Moderate
d 15%
% 18% 17%
29%
21%
Significant 13% 12% 13%

Direct mailings  Offline ads (print,  Other online  Social network  Email

(postcard,  TV, radio, event  (Google ads,  (Facebook, 
newsletter,  sponsorship) online  Twitter)
catalog...) directories, etc)
• Businesses are most likely to engage in email marketing, followed closely by 
social network marketing
• 50% of businesses have moderate or significant social network marketing activity
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 How Many of Your New Customers Come From 
The Following Sources?
The Following Sources?
115 114 112 112 111 113 114
0% 100%
13% 8%
18%
27%
38% 20%
None 49% 43%
30% 34%

41% 23%
29% 25%
Few 25% 72%
36%
23%
18% 21%
Some 20% 28%
Many 12% 16% 16%
6% 10%
Direct  Offline ads  Social  Email Walkin Other online  Referrals from 
mailings  (print, TV,  network  channels (your  existing 
(postcard,  radio, event  (Facebook,  website,  customers / 
newsletter,  sponsorship) Twitter) Google, Yelp,  word of mouth
catalog...) etc.)

Most new customers come from referrals/word of mouth

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 How Big of a Problem is Negative Feedback About 
Your Business?
Your Business?

Definitely a major problem

Definitely a major problem
9%

Somewhat of a problem
19%

72%
Not a big problem

Most businesses say negative feedback is not a big problem

Most businesses say negative feedback is not a big problem

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 How Often Do You Provide the Following 
Offers/Discounts?
118 118
100%

Never 39% 44%

Rarely 17%
18%

Sometimes 32% 21%

Often 12% 17%

Coupons or In‐store Promotions
special offers or Discounts 

Less than half of businesses regularly offer coupons, special offers or in‐store 
Less than half of businesses regularly offer coupons special offers or in store
promotions/discounts

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 Online and Social Media Presence

Does Your Business Does Your Business Do You Use Twitter

Have a Website? Have a Facebook Page? For Your business?

118 118 118

100% 100% 100%
No 7%
No 33%
No 48%

Yes 93%
Yes 67%
Yes 52%

67% of respondents use Facebook, while only 52% use Twitter

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 Frequency of Facebook and Twitter Use
77 61
100%
Less than once/mo
Less than once/mo. 16% 10%
11%
1‐2 times/mo. 21%
20%

Once/wk 22%
31%

Several times/wk 30%

Daily or several 28%
times/day 12%

How often do you post  How often do you tweet 
to your Facebook  from your business 
business page? Twitter account

Businesses vary greatly in the frequency of their social media use

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 Has Facebook Taken Up a Lot of Your Time?

77
100%
6%
No, it has saved me time

86% It takes up some time but not that much

8% Yes, it takes up a significant amount of time

Businesses don’t think Facebook takes up too much of their time

Businesses don’t think Facebook takes up too much of their time

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 Which of the Following are Important Goals for 
Investing in Social Media for Your Business?
Investing in Social Media for Your Business?
Not Important 4% 3% 3% 4%
10%
Somewhat 17% 17%
22% 30%
I
Important
t t 35% 39% 42%
42% 49%

42% 51%
45%

30%
Very 42%
74%
Important 68% 62%
55% 42%
42%
% 39% 38%
31%
17%
9%
Find new  Improve your  Make it  Develop  Create  Obtain more  Improve  Provide  To keep up  My 
prospects  brand image easier for  more of a  customized  customer  customer  special offers  with my  customers 
and generate  your  personal  marketing  feedback /  satisfaction to drive more  competitors  are asking 
new leads customers  connection  campaigns input sales who are  about it, so 
to promote  to customers using social  I feel like I 
or refer you media should

Finding new prospects/leads, improving brand image, enabling referrals, and 
developing a personal connection with customers are the top social media goals

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 If You Have NOT Invested in Social Media but are INTERESTED in 
Investing in Social Media, what Benefits Would You Expect to See?
Investing in Social Media, what Benefits Would You Expect to See?
Don’t Expect
8% 12% 8% 12% 8%
This Benefit 19%
35% 31%
Maybe Expect %
38%
35% 31% 50%
This Benefit 42% 38% 50%
38%
27% 31%
38%
Definitely 23%
Expect 58% 58%
50% 50%
This Benefit 42% 42% 38% 38%
27% 23%

Find new  Develop  Make it  Obtain more  Improve your  Create  To keep up  Improve  My  Provide 
prospects  more of a  easier for  customer  brand image customized  with my  customer  customers  special offers 
and generate  personal  your  feedback /  marketing  competitors  satisfaction are asking  to drive more 
new leads connection  customers  input campaigns who are  about it, so  sales
to customers to promote  using social  I feel like I 
or refer you media should

Finding new prospects/leads, developing a personal connection with customers, 
enabling referrals, and obtaining customer feedback are the top social media goals of 
bl f l d b f db k h l d l f
those who haven’t yet begun using social media

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 Do You Use a Program or Application to Help You 
Utilize Facebook and Twitter?
Utilize Facebook and Twitter?
Count of Respondents Who Use These Programs to Track Customer Data
(multiple responses possible)
(multiple responses possible)
50

9 10
8
6
2

NONE Tweetdeck Hootsuite Radian 6 Not Sure Other

Of the 77 respondents who use social media, only 35% use a program or application to 
help them utilize Facebook and Twitter; most of these applications focus on Twitter

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 Conclusion

This year has seen a surge in social media adoption by small businesses. 67% of our survey respondents have a 
Facebook page for their business, while 52% use Twitter. 42% of businesses with Facebook
f f pages post content 
daily or several times per week.  Business owners say they are using social media to find new prospects/leads, 
improve brand image, enable referrals, and develop a personal connection with customers.

About Hearsay
Hearsay is the leading social customer management application.  
With Hearsay you can capture leads, stay on top of your social 
presence, set reminders, and manage your customer list ‐‐ all from 
one central dashboard.  Setup takes less than five minutes, and there 
are no downloads or software to install.  

To learn more, please visit hearsaylabs.com

"Hearsay makes it easy to grow our business

on Facebook and Twitter. We love it!”
–Martha Levy, Owner of Ceragraphics

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