Survey Says: Take That, Facebook!

It seems small-business owners like their marketing implemented the old-fashioned way. Speaking of all things quaint, is anyone listening in your office meetings? And, while it's quite the current craze, "social couponing" is not a panacea for many small businesses. Here's a closer look at some of the latest small-business surveys.

Mouthing Off

While social media is getting all the buzz these days, the marketing tool small-business owners rely on most is good old-fashioned word-of-mouth. So says Small Business Marketing Practices, a new survey my company, GrowBiz Media, conducted with Zoomerang, a leading provider of online survey and polling tools.

Yes, I know social media is a form of word-of-mouth, but when asked what specific word-of-mouth marketing methods are important to their companies, just 34 percent of small-business owners specifically cited social media. In comparison, 70 percent said in-person networking, and 50 percent cited customer referral rewards.

Of course, word-of-mouth is increasingly moving online these days, which is why another survey finding -- just 54 percent of entrepreneurs have business websites -- was shocking to me. If your business doesn't already have a website, consider this an order: Get one. Now.

Coupons Don't Cut It

Are you using "social couponing" tools like Groupon and LivingSocial to drive sales for your business? Such coupon promotions are unprofitable for nearly one-third of the businesses that offer them, according to a study of 150 businesses by Rice University's Jones School of Business. And over 40 percent of respondents said they would not do a social coupon promotion again.

The business owners whose promotions weren't profitable report only about 25 percent of redeemers spent more than the coupon's face value, and just 13 percent of coupon holders ever came back to buy at full price. In contrast, other business owners were quite happy -- 50 percent of their customers responding to the promotion spent more than the coupon's value, and 31 percent returned later.

Overall, the findings suggest that one key to profitability is limiting the number of coupons.

Social couponing is still in its infancy, so you need to experiment and test what works best for your business. There are a growing number of options that enable you to do just that.

Too Many Bored Meetings?

Your younger employees are likely to consider meetings a waste of time and aren't paying much attention if they're attending one, according to a new survey conducted by Forrester Consulting for Citrix Online. Just 29 percent of Gen Y workers say meetings to decide on a course of action are "very efficient," compared to 45 percent of older baby boomers. Gen Y is also least likely of any age group to pay attention; just 51 percent of them say it's important to pay attention in meetings to decide on a course of action, compared to 75 percent overall.

Meetings take up a big part of the U.S. business day -- 90 percent of Americans regularly meet in person, more than any other nationality, and 51 percent of those meet daily. By comparison, just 31 percent of French businesses hold daily meetings. You can call me a traitor if you like, but when it comes to making potatoes and having meetings, the French way is superior.

Rieva Lesonsky is CEO of GrowBiz Media, a content and consulting company that helps entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses. Follow Rieva at Twitter.com/Rieva and visit SmallBizDaily.com to sign up for her free TrendCast reports.