The Social Space And Small Business Are Great Dance Partners

I’ve been thinking a lot about how well suited social media marketing is for small business, for small businesses are actually social in real life.
With that in mind, I took note of April’s Confidence Indicator from DiscoverCard.
Some of the key findings in the report include:

• In 2007, 22 percent of small business owners were members of an online social networking community such as Facebook, Linked-In, My Space or Twitter. Three years later, that number has more than doubled to 48 percent.
• Of those who are active on social networks, 55 percent promote their businesses, which is up from 45 percent in 2009.
• 32 percent of the small business owners cite new leads as the top benefit received from their activity in this channel, followed by picking up business tips at 12 percent.

Small business owners–like large brands–have a story to tell and social media marketing is a punk rock way to roll. It’s totally hands on, and the rise of Facebook in particular has given many small business owners the platform they were looking for. There’s no web developer necessary, and that fact alone, is a breath of fresh air for many small business owners who find the management of their digital presence to be highly frustrating, expensive and a major time suck.
In related news, you can now “follow” a company on LinkedIn.
Mashable calls the new functionality “LinkedIn’s version of the Facebook Fan Page.” Following a company on LinkedIn provides the user with information on recent hires and promotions, new job opportunities and company profile updates.