SMEs are being 'put off' social media

UK SMEs expect to do business via social media but are being put off by sales lead conversations, according to research from referral and networking organisation, Business Network International (BNI).

The network surveyed its membership of SMEs and discovered 80 per cent of respondents expected to gain new business using social media. Despite this expectation, 75 per cent of respondents were ‘put off’ from using companies who bombarded them with overt sales messages.

SMEs and those marketing to them appear not to have gotten their social media strategies correct. Speaking about the results BNI’s national director, Charlie Lawson, said, “There are businesses which have the various social media profiles and accounts, yet no content, others that bombard with promotional messages, and a large proportion that don’t engage at all.  These three strands are a combination of why SMEs are failing in their social media usage.”

BNI surveyed 1000 of its members, around 80 per cent of which are B2B brands.