Social Media Adoption Among Small- and Mid-Sized Businesses Strongest In the Southeast and Great Plains

SAN FRANCISCO, June 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Small- and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) located in the Great Plains and Southeast states of the U.S. are embracing social media at a quicker pace than other areas of the country, according to a recent survey conducted by Zoomerang Online Surveys and Polls.

The survey polled more than 500 SMB decision makers on the adoption of social media for business use and how these social media profiles are managed.

Of those surveyed, businesses located within Great Plains and Southeast states are more likely to have branded social media channels at 30 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Additionally, decision makers for businesses in the Southeast (28 percent) and Great Plains (22 percent) regions are among the most active via social media on behalf of their businesses.

"Less-populated areas or cities with a strong small business presence are relying more and more on cost-effective mass-communication tools for business news, customer support and acquisition, as well as networking," said Alex Terry, General Manager of Zoomerang. "For people immersed in technology driven cultures, such as Silicon Valley, this data may come as a surprise, but I believe they can learn from less-technology enriched regions."

Among the regions slower to adopt social media are the Northeast (New England and New York) and the Mid-Atlantic regions.  

Additionally, the survey found that 15 percent of those surveyed have issued internal social media policies. At the same time, another 6 percent plan to create a social media employee policy and 8 percent are evaluating the need for one.

"Considering the recent social media gaffes, businesses need to proactively evaluate their social media needs and practices," Terry said. "For many smaller businesses, a social media policy may not be required. Instead simple education on the potential repercussions of ill-informed tweets or updates will deter most situations."

Aside from negatively reflecting upon the brand, social media blunders can significantly hurt brands and have resulted in employee termination. Of the decision makers surveyed, 6 percent indicated that they have fired an employee for misuse of social media.

For more information on the survey and its results, visit http://www.zoomerang.com/uploadedImages/Social-Media-Adoption-by-SMBs-in-2011-Zoomerang-Infographic.jpg.

About Zoomerang

Zoomerang is a fast, easy-to-use and powerful tool to make and send your own online surveys and polls.  Millions of people and thousands of businesses, non-profits and educational institutions trust Zoomerang online surveys and polls to gather feedback allowing them to make better decisions with minimal cost and effort. Zoomerang provides customizable survey templates for the most common questions including customer satisfaction, meeting feedback, product feedback, event planning, online voting and hundreds more. Zoomerang customers can take advantage of Zoomerang Sample, a panel of more than 2.5 million consumers ready to take surveys.  Zoomerang is a product of MarketTools Inc.  For more information, visit www.zoomerang.com

About MarketTools, Inc.

MarketTools is the leading provider of software and services for market research and enterprise feedback management (EFM). The company is focused on providing leading organizations the actionable customer insights they need to make better business decisions that lead to high-value business impact. As the first company to make online surveys widely available on the Web, MarketTools continues its market leading position by providing the broadest range of powerful, accurate and integrated customer insight technologies that empower companies to become the most customer-centric organizations in their industries. MarketTools' premier portfolio of technology-based insight brands includes CustomerSat™, TrueSample®, Zoomerang®, ZoomPanel® and ZoomPanel Tech™.

MarketTools is a privately held company with corporate headquarters in San Francisco and European headquarters in London. For more information, please visit: http://www.markettools.com.

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SOURCE Zoomerang