Not only are SMBs in the Professional Services vertical heavy users of Social Media for advertising and promotion, they are highly engaged on social media, according to LCM. 3/4 reported that they track “likes” in social media, while 57.4% monitor customer comments online.

There is a big opportunity with this group to offer CRM solutions because Professional Services SMBs stay connected with their customers but only 20% say they use a CRM system. 88.0% have maintained a customer list for a year or more, while an additional 6.4% have maintained a customer list for less than a year.

The full report can be viewed and downloaded by clients of BIA/Kelsey here. This report is one of a series of drill-down reports on the findings from Wave 18 of BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor? survey. In the coming weeks we will be looking at SMBs by additional vertical categories. Our Home and Trade Services SMB report is already available. To learn more about our LCM survey of small and medium-sized businesses, click here.

Click here to purchase the Professional Services SMBs — LCM Wave 18. To purchase any of our other Local Commerce Monitor drill-down reports, check out our new BIA/Kelsey Shop.

*Professional Services vertical includes consulting, legal, architecture, and computer software. Financial Services SMBs are not included, but will be profiled in their own vertical report.

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According to BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor, Wave 18?, 72.2% of the SMBs (small- to medium-sized businesses) surveyed* use Social Media to promote their business. Of the different social media used for advertising and promotion that BIA/Kelsey tracks in the LCM survey, Facebook Page ranked the highest, followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. Facebook ads were close behind in fourth place. Instagram and Pinterest, which didn’t make the chart below, are achieving traction — each has close to a 10% reach.

Social media can provide SMBs with an immediate and interactive connection with their customers. So how do SMBs perceive the return on their investment for time spent in advertising or promoting themselves on social media? In our survey we asked several questions on the satisfaction of the various advertising and marketing choices made. It should be noted that only SMBs who reported using a particular media were asked for their ROI assessment of that media.

While only 15.2% of SMBs surveyed reported using Facebook ads to advertise and promote their business, they gave it the highest combined ROI of Excellent (10-19x spend) and Extraordinary (more than 20x spend) of the social media in the survey, at 37.3%. Instagram and Other Social, which 8.1% and 5.4% of SMBs surveyed, respectively, reported using for advertising and promotion, tied for the next highest combined ROI at 30.6%, followed closely by Twitter ads at 30.5%. Instagram and Twitter ads both had more respondents rating them Extraordinary than Other Social. LinkedIn, which was second among SMB users, was ranked lowest of the social media, with combined perceived ROI (Excellent and Extraordinary) of 18.6%.

SMBs in our survey on average spent 21.4%, or $7,638, of their annual advertising and promotion budget on Social Media players, such as Facebook and Twitter.

Local Commerce Monitor? (LCM) is BIA/Kelsey’s ongoing survey of the advertising behaviors of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). To learn more about our LCM survey, click here.

*From the Full Sample.

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The keys to any sales person being effective using LinkedIn are finding the right people with the right connections, leading with insights that are valuable to your target audience, and being able to leverage relationships to lead you to decision makers or other prospects. “There are on average 5.6 decision makers in most organizations and it is important to understand who those people are to be the most effective,” says Koka.

When advising sales teams on effectively using social media sites like LinkedIn, Koka recommends:

1. Build your profile to showcase your skills, insights and experience to build your reputation
2. Develop your network with people who can help you achieve your goals
3. Gather insights that are important to your audience and targets
4. Contribute your insights in meaningful ways within groups and forums

Sales people and sales teams need to understand that buyers are researching sales people and companies before ever allowing them to make a one-on-one connection. Sales people who position themselves as experts, who provide solutions from solid companies, are ultimately more successful than their counterparts who ignore the value of social selling.

The post At Leading In Local: ILM 2013: Selling Through LinkedIn appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Social media can provide SMBs with an immediate and interactive connection with their customers. So how do SMBs perceive the return on their investment for time spent in advertising or promoting themselves on social media?

In BIA/Kelsey’s annual Local Commerce Monitor™ (LCM) survey on advertising and marketing of small and medium businesses (SMBs), we asked several questions on the satisfaction of the various advertising and marketing choices made. It should be noted that only SMBs who reported using a particular media were asked for their ROI assessment of that media.

While only 15.5% of SMBs surveyed reported using Facebook ads to advertise and promote their business, they gave it the highest combined ROI of Excellent (10-19x spend) and Extraordinary (more than 20x spend) of the social media in the survey, at 45.4%. Blogs, which 19.0% of SMBs surveyed reported using for advertising and promotion, had the second highest combined ROI at 37.0%. Video on YouTube and Facebook Pages were a close third and fourth, with 34.6% and 34.1%, respectively. LinkedIn and Twitter, which were second and fourth among SMB users, were ranked lowest two of the social media, with combined perceived ROI of 31.1% and 23.9%, respectively.

But where do these social media rank in usage by SMB of the 44 of the media channels in the survey? Facebook ads ranked No. 5 in media used for advertising and promotion overall. Blogs came in at No. 16. Video on Youtube and Facebook Pages were ranked Nos. 21 and 22, respectively. Twitter was 31st, with LinkedIn coming in next to last in 43rd place.

LinkedIn and Twitter are still relatively new channels for many SMBs, so there still may be some learning curve there. Especially for Twitter, which has a unique language and set of conventions and hasn’t also been seen as especially business-friendly. One reason Facebook ads perceived ROI is higher is SMBs ability to track their campaign spending and toggle performance, as opposed to “owned media” channels such as Facebook Page, Twitter and LinkedIn, where tracking and measurement can be more nebulous.

In comparison to a year ago, seven of the eight social media showed improvement in perceived ROI from Wave 16 of the LCM survey, 3rd Quarter 2012. Twitter was the fastest growing social media channel year-over-year, at 24.4% for Excellent/Extraordinary perceived ROI. Facebook ads were a close second, with 23.7% year-over-year growth. Facebook pages showed 16.0% year-over-year growth in perceived ROI.

ROI is improving year-over-year for social media, but there’s still ample room to optimize effectiveness. Again, many of these channels are still relatively new (especially when compared to very familiar traditional media), and measurement standards and best practices are still being fashioned.

For more about SMB’s use of Twitter in advertising and promotion, check out this blog post.

Interested in learning more about Local Commerce Monitor Wave 17™ or getting a custom cut for your business? Check out BIA/Kelsey’s LCM page.

We’ll be covering this and other themes in greater depth at our upcoming conference, Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media, December 10-12 in San Francisco. Be there and join the conversation.

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The clock is ticking!  We are just one month from Leading in Local: Interactive Local Media, which is Dec. 10-12 in San Francisco. The event has shaped up to be the most exciting local event in recent memory – a 2 1/2 day extravaganza that focuses on local:  The Internet’s last and biggest frontier.

We’ve already announced a powerful lineup of 48 speakers, including local leaders at Google, Facebook, Go Daddy, eBay, Groupon, Hubspot, Intuit; and major thinkers and leaders, including Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, AllThings D‘s Kara Swisher and Startup Rising author Chris Schroeder.

Want more? We have some exciting new confirms.

• Amit Kumar, VP, and Head of SMB, Yahoo. Kumar is set to brief attendees on Yahoo’s local and SMB initiatives under CEO Marissa Meyer.
• Ralf VonSosen, Marketing Leader, LinkedIn. VonSosen is set to discuss LinkedIn’s approach to leveraging its vast network for marketing
• Joel Hughes, SVP, Constant Contact. Hughes joins SureFire Social’s  Chris Marentis to discuss ways to make social media really powerful for local.
• Jeff Folckemer, President, Local Edge. Folckemer joins a great Digital Agency session and will provide insight into Hearst’s view of what really works.
• Anna Zornosa, President, Ruby Rails. Zornosa, the longtime industry leader with prior stints at Knight Ridder Digital, Dealix and Women.com joins our special Women Leading in Local networking session.

Of course, it isn’t just about what’s on stage. We are staging the San Francisco edition of our Future Stars contest, which rewards talented local startups; and not one, but TWO great precon tours set. A limited number of attendees will be visiting with Yelp at its brand new headquarters in the historic PacBell building; another group will be meeting a super group of Bay Area startups at WeWork. More info on signing up is coming.

Will we see you in San Francisco?   Register here:

We’ll be touring Yelp’s new headquarters.

The post Leading Execs From Yahoo, LinkedIn, Constant Contact Added to Interactive Local Media (San Francisco, Dec. 10-12) appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

By Steve Passwaiter, VP, Business Development

We head into the New Year severely chastened by the historic revenue declines of the past year. For traditional media companies — not so much the new media companies that BIA/Kelsey also covers — they were several shades of awful.

Signs abound, however, of a modest recovery for traditional media. The broadcast networks are reporting an active scatter market of inventory held back from upfront sales. This makes the network execs who decided to hold back inventory at the upfront look like good market callers. Assuming that flat is the new “up,” some of the larger radio groups are reporting a decent December.

The American consumer seems to have provided the retail community some good news in the recently concluded holiday shopping season. The longer term outlook on consumer spending seems a little mixed but let’s take the good news for what it is.

We’re also coming up against weakened 2009 comps, but that’s a mix of good and bad news. And only assumes our frame of reference is the late 1990s, rather than the recent boom years. While current ad rates are still depressed, they could be bolstered by some advance demand.

But advertisers are still wary of the economy as unemployment remains high for a while. That will likely mean any advertising rate increases are going to be the result of some intense negotiation. That won’t be a change from 2009.

A lot of businesses — large and small — decided to cut back and/or sit out advertising in 2009. But there is a more positive outlook right now. Moreover, business owners know that they need to re-invite consumers through advertising campaigns into their showrooms in order to generate sales. There’s still business to be had but it will need to be seduced in no small part by solid and effective advertising. Can your current sales operation make that happen?

There’s some optimism for 2010 revenues as the nation prepares for its first mid-term election during the Obama presidency. This coming mid-term election is red hot and looking very competitive nearly everywhere across the country. With all 435 House seats, more than a third of the Senate and Gubernatorial races in states like California, Texas, Florida, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio, it’s a big, big year in terms of advertising.

This has generated the usual estimates of billions of political dollars in play spread out over several early year primaries and the November election. This is great news to parts of the media business that have seen more than their share of suffering this year. If true, these projections can put a big 2010 Band-Aid on a business that needed a tourniquet in 2009.

But what about 2011 when all that political money disappears and we’re back to the normal advertising marketplace? It would seem that the additional revenue in 2010 is a perfect opportunity for traditional media companies to address their shortcomings on the sales side of the industry with both the traditional and digital sides. If you’re not happy with the ups and downs of the odd-even year symphony that’s become our business, perhaps 2010 is the convenient time to address that. The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.

The word of the day for marketers is “flexibility.” “As more media platforms become available, it is imperative that all marketers continue to assess their capabilities and select the platforms that are best suited to help them meet their brand’s goals and objectives,” said Bob Liodice, president and CEO of the ANA. “With this proliferation of media, marketers must work harder, survey the entire landscape available to them and create their brand’s most optimal media mix.”

It is hard to argue with that. But can anyone explain this to local marketers?  It’s time for local media sellers to step into that gap.

While we’ve all had our share of advertising agency adventures over the years, the simple fact is that your sales staffs are going to have to take more of that platform-agnostic mentality to effectively service direct local clients. The days of a single platform sale will become less common as we move into the digital age. Our local sellers are going to have to be able to construct ad campaigns that make multiple platforms work effectively in some synchronicity.

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