If you thought Facebook and MySpace were purely for consumers and had no relevance to your business, think again says a new study from BT. A survey by the telcoms firm found a 10% increase in businesses networking online. In total 15% of small businesses now promote themselves on a social network, compared with just 7% at the beginning of the year. Read more

Forming the majority of this influx of companies unsurprisingly, are start ups. Following in their footsteps are home businesses and then growing businesses. Rebecca Appleton, Top Position’s head of SEO says this trend has been a long time coming. “Social media sites like MySpace and Blogger have traditionally been thought of as the domain of the consumer but big name brands like Coca-Cola, UPS and Dell have all proven that social networking pays off for companies who can roll up their sleeves and provide their consumers and would be consumers with an informal, engaging space.

“Social media is time rich not cash rich so it’s a wonderful low cost option – this is clearly one of the reason’s its been adopted by start ups. It’s informal means also lends itself extremely well to experimentation making it the perfect place to try quirky new ideas and conduct consumer research.”

UK SEO agency Top Position uses social media sites extensively as part of its organic optimisation services. To find out more, call 0800 094 9001 or read our white paper on social media.