Australian SME's Adopting More Social Media, just behind USA

If you think Social Media strategies aren't being embraced widely in Australia, think again.
The Nielsen-Community Engine 2010 Social Media Business Benchmarking Study has found that 70 per cent of all Australian SME businesses intent conducting some for of Social Media activity this year, compared with 40 per cent in 2008.
The study found that many companies are considering removing a large percentage of budgets tied up in expensive traditional marketing and into the cost-effective and the much larger audience of Social Media. 47 per cent have reduced their print media spend, and 33 per cent have removed resources from direct marketing.
The fear of looking "old" has also driven the spike in Social Media interest, as companies clamber to relate to the extremely large online audience. This risk of failing to connect has become greater than the risk of ditching traditional advertising.
The study also found that over 75% of small, and 75% of large businesses already actively engage in at least one Social Media tool.
Some more facts from the study:
Jetstar has shifted 40% of its total offline marketing spend, and redeployed it for Social Media marketing
21 per cent of big businesses plan to expand their marketing budgets this year to accommodate Social Media, versus 40% of SME's
Overall, the majority of businesses claim they will allocate between 5 and 20 per cent this year to a Social Media marketing budget
50 per cent of businesses agree that if they do not employ Social Media, they will lose touch with their customers
63.5 per cent of businesses are now asking "HOW", not "IF" to do Social Media
42 per cent say that senior management has been the only factor to a lack of implementation of Social Media
If your business would like to benefit from the 2 billion online consumers, contact us here: http://www.strongmandigital.com.au/contact-us/

Until Next Time,

Tomer Garzberg

http://www.strongmandigital.com.au/2010/05/15/smes-adopting-more-social-media/