How big a role is social media playing in Business Owner’s marketing and public relations efforts?

According to our new study, Serving Business Owners, half of surveyed Business Owners are utilizing Facebook and LinkedIn. Three-in-ten have incorporated Twitter into their marketing and PR strategies.

In comparison, social media has become more of a go-to marketing/PR tool than traditional platforms such as television (11 percent), radio (14 percent) and billboards (8 percent). Still, Business Owners continue to see value in using newspapers and magazines to market or promote their companies (one-third indicates they do so).

Not surprisingly, age is a factor in social media usage by Business Owners. The youngest entrepreneurs ages 21-45, are more likely than their older counterparts to use Facebook (71 percent vs. 50 percent of business owners ages 46-60 and 35 percent of those 61 and up). Likewise, 62 percent of the youngest business owners market their businesses through LinkedIn, compared with half of those ages 46-60 and 38 percent of owners ages 61 and up.

Half of the youngest Business Owners also market their companies on Twitter, at least twice as many as older business owners we surveyed.

Conversely, older Business Owners are more likely to market or publicize their companies via newspapers and/or magazines (almost four-in-ten vs. 27 percent of the youngest Business Owners).

Serving Business Owners identifies a gender gap in social media usage to market or publicize a company. Are women more social media savvy than men? Our survey suggests this is the case. Seven-in-ten women entrepreneurs indicate they use Facebook to market their companies vs. less than half (47 percent) of men. Similarly, two-thirds (67 percent) market their companies on LinkedIn compared with 46 percent of male Business Owners. Almost half (48 percent) market via Twitter vs only 26 percent of their male counterparts.

Male Business Owners are more committed to marketing through newspapers and/or magazines, 37 percent vs. 25 percent.

Company size also matters in relation to social media usage for marketing and PR. Small Business Owners surveyed by Spectrem Group were more likely than those with more than 50 employees to use Facebook and Twitter to market their companies. Mid-sized Business Owners are the most likely to market via newspapers and/or magazines.