Small business owners would like help managing their social media marketing, but many simply can’t afford it, according to a new survey of 1,305 small business owners conducted by Constant Contact in June 2013. That means when it comes to their marketing priorities, social media loses out to older, more established local advertising platforms like radio and TV.
Overall 19% of the small business owners surveyed by Constant Contact said they would like to be able to outsource social media, but only 3% are actually able to do so. That compares to 40% who outsource TV and radio ads, out of 51% who would like to do so; 35% who outsource search engine optimization, out of 50% who would like to; 23% who outsource online banner ads, out of 34% who would like to; 22% who outsource their Web site management, out of 31% who would like to; and 20% who outsource local print advertising, out of 32% who would like to.
In other words, the biggest disparities are seen in the proportions of small business owners who would like to outsource social media and SEO, versus those who actually do so (16% and 15%, respectively). Among those who would like to outsource social media but don’t, the largest segment -- 36% -- said they can’t afford it, while 12% said they don’t have the internal bandwidth, and 6% said they can’t find effective external resources.
A previous Constant Contact survey found that 80% of small business owners are using social media marketing, but more than half said it’s the marketing activity they need the most help with, according to Chris Litster, Constant Contact’s senior vice-president of sales and marketing.
The economics of outsourcing depend, in part, on how much a small business owner’s own labor is worth. Asked to calculate the value of an hour of their own labor, small business owners returned an average figure of $273 (that’s money spent, not money earned).