Women and Millennial Business Owners Rely on Social Media

Turns out women and Millennials who own and operate small businesses are more likely to use social media in their businesses, according to a new survey from Clutch, a B2B research and reviews firm. The data reveals that among women-owned businesses, 74 percent use social media, compared to just 66 percent of men-owned businesses.

“Women are generally better conversationalists than men,” said Jeff Gibbard, chief social strategist at digital agency I’m From the Future. “They tend to be more expressive and more emotive. It’s no surprise to me why more women business owners use social media.”

Women often communicate better than men, which translates to the online world, where they are more likely to use social media effectively.

Furthermore, there is also a generational divide among small businesses’ social media usage. The survey finds that 79 percent of Millennial-owned small businesses use social media compared to 65 percent of small businesses owned by older generations.

Millennials, like women, frequently use social media for their personal lives. Their social media skills easily carry over into their businesses – unlike older generations, experts say.

“The older people didn’t grow up with social media, so many don’t understand how to use it for their business,” said Shawn Alain, president of social media agency Viral in Nature. “They went through a significant part of their life without even the Internet, and they remember what it was like to not have a smartphone or email.”

Millennials are also more likely to use Instagram and Snapchat than older generations, but Generation Xers and Baby Boomers are more likely to use LinkedIn.

Facebook remains the most popular social media channel for small businesses, no matter the gender or generation of the owner – 86 percent say they use it, which is nearly twice the number of small businesses that use the second-place channel, Instagram (48%).

Among small business users of social media, 12 percent say they use Facebook exclusively for their social media efforts.

Clutch’s 2018 Small Business Social Media Survey included 351 small business owners or managers from across the U.S. with fewer than 500 employees.

Other key findings include:

• 71% of small businesses use social media, and 47% began before 2017.
• Facebook is the most-used social media channel (86%) followed by Instagram (48%), YouTube (46%), and Twitter (44%).
• 12% of small businesses use only Facebook for their social media efforts.
• Women-owned small businesses (74%) are more likely than men-owned businesses (66%) to use social media.
• More Millennial-owned businesses (79%) use social media than businesses owned by those older than 35 (65%).
• 52% of small businesses post to social media at least once per day.
• Images/infographics (54%) are the most popular content types that businesses post to social media.

Read the full report here: https://clutch.co/agencies/social-media-marketing/resources/small-business-social-media-survey-2018