Social media 'drives traffic' to small business sites

Making full use of social media applications is a simple and cost-effective means of building up a database of loyal customers, small businesses have been advised.

While a large proportion of smaller enterprises now have an online presence, many are at risk of being lost on the internet, with their specially-crafted websites rarely visited by new or repeat customers.

In order to ensure that this doesn't happen, small business leaders should proactively engage with their customer base, with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter providing a way to promote services or products, as well as receive customer feedback.

However, business leaders should treat work-related social media efforts differently to how they interact online outside of office hours.

"The point of using social media as part of a marketing or PR strategy for a small business is to drive traffic and generate sales,'' Peter Shankman, founder and chief executive of New York PR firm The Geek Factory, told the Miami Herald.

"If you're not doing that with your social media strategy, then there's no point in doing it at all.''

At the same time, Canada's Victoria Advocate has cited a recent study by AT&T which found that employees who are allowed to use social networking sites during work hours tend to be more efficient.

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