On last week’s Social Local Media launch webinar, we emphasized that to be socially engaging, local businesses and media companies alike must be both socially present and active. In other words, just stepping out on a platform and claiming a profile page won’t cut it. This idea begs several questions, though. How do you define “active”? Are there data to support this assertion? And how much is too much?

Of course, social activity is in the eye of the beholder … or the producer. Activity (volume and creativity of posts, frequency of interaction, etc.) is predicated on whom your audience is, what they expect, and how you can best deliver value to them. There isn’t necessarily a tidy answer to all of this.

There are, however, recent data from two different sources pointing to direct benefits from higher content output and engagement efforts. HubSpot, an inbound marketing software company, released study results showing that active small-business blogs (at least five articles over a seven-day window) spur nearly seven times more organic search traffic than more dormant blogs. Consequently, these SMB bloggers also drive 55 percent high website traffic and 97 percent more inbound links.

These numbers are strong reinforcement of a point that my colleague Andrew Shotland made on the webinar: that even as social networks proliferate and grow ever-sophisticated, “Web 1.0″ social tools (blogging, forums, reviews) remain critical to SMBs’ social presence and brand reputation.

As for the newer, “Web 2.0″ social tools, there is similar evidence. Postling, a social management platform that we recently reviewed, published an infographic (see below) based on polling of a sample of its small-business clients indicating that those who post on social networks 8+ times per week draw an average of 10.3 comments per day. By contrast, small businesses falling between one and seven posts per week net fewer than one-half of one comment per day.

Some accounting for the samples must take place, as SMBs working with HubSpot and/or Postling are generally tech savvy and more likely to be early adopters of new marketing platforms and techniques. Still the evidence is clear: get on and get posting!

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