How Much Time Do Small Business Owners Spend On Social Media?
The importance of your small business’s social media presence is indisputable. And the stats are in (just keep reading to see some of them). So why do small business owners avoid spending time on their social media marketing? Maybe they don’t think they’re great at it (feasible), or that they don’t have the time (not an excuse), and maybe they don’t want to spend an arm and a leg (fair enough). But in a remote-first world, small business owners can finally delegate social media tasks to virtual marketing assistants for a price that makes sense. Actually, it’s a price that might surprise you.
Let’s look at some data regarding time spent on social media for marketing purposes and what that means for the average small business.
Social Media Usage Statistics
First, let’s paint the background of social media usage. Looking at global statistics published in 2020, for all social media usage: “the average global internet users spent 144 minutes on social media sites every day.” (Digital Marketing) That’s the equivalent of 876 hours, or 36.5 days per year – poof! Oddly, and conveniently for anyone not so hot at math, that is 10% of your entire year, just in casual social media usage. That number is a broad brush too because that is only the average user, that isn’t someone also managing the social media presence for a business.
Small Business Marketing Statistics
What are the benefits of consistent marketing for a small business? According to a survey conducted in 2019, “More than 79 percent of respondents who spent between five and 10 hours per week on marketing reported revenue growth in 2018.” (Outbound Engine) So it becomes clearer that more time invested in marketing is helping drive revenue growth. Seems like a no-brainer.
So, naturally, most small business owners are dedicating a good portion of their time to marketing their business, right? Wrong. The majority, 57% to be exact, of small business owners are dedicating less than five or less hours a week to social media marketing efforts. (Vertical Response) And similarly, 58% of small business owners report spending five or less hours on the totality of all marketing efforts. (Outbound Engine) That is 10.8 hours less than the time an average person is spending on social media for leisure.
If More Marketing Leads to More Revenue
Where’s the disconnect? Are most small business owners more interested in investing their time into their personal social media presence, or some other activity, instead of working on their business’s marketing efforts? It really is that simple. The same study found that “86% of respondents prefer to spend their time on other business activities than spending time on their marketing.” (Outbound Engine)
Honestly, it comes as no surprise, because you want to run your business and also have your free time to do what you want. Not everyone finds the psychology and sociology of marketing thrilling to the point of making it a top priority on a daily basis. In fact, that’s the feeling for the vast majority of business owners. Instead, it is one item on a growing to-do list. You know it has to be done, but it would be best if someone else could be doing it instead. That sounds great, but what if you don’t have the money for additional payroll or the time to spend on the hiring process right now?
Solution: Delegate Marketing Tasks to a Remote Marketing Assistant
Wait, we both agreed you might not have the time or money right now to have someone to delegate any of this to, so what’s with that heading? Let’s introduce a new concept – remote-first global staffing with a team of virtual assistants. True, that is a mouthful, but it is what we do and it is actually pretty simple. Let’s go back to the research cited where small business owners are seeing increased revenue just from spending around 10 hours per week on marketing. Great! Now, let’s say you delegate that 10 hours to a trained Marketing Assistant. Want to take a guess at how much something like that would cost you? $2000? $4000?
Ok, ready for the answer? It could fluctuate a bit on the exact total, but the pricing would start at $70. Yes, really, I didn’t miss a 0 – that’s all, and that is an all-in price. No surprises.
If you are like me, then you think $70 per week would be a pretty smart investment to make when the trade-off is increased revenue. Plus, it isn’t YOU pouring one-fourth of a typical work-week (I know, what is that concept!?) into marketing. So, you also get those 10 hours back to focus on the parts of your business that you love and that you know how to grow.
If this sounds like something that might interest you, let us know! We can help. If you are interested in learning more about our services and what we can do to help your small business go remote-first (or just delegate some of your not-so-favorite tasks to us), while saving you time and money, shoot us your questions.
