Are you sitting at work thinking how lost you’d be without Twitter or Facebook to communicate with your customers and show you are listening?  Recent research has shown that engagement through social media hadn’t caught on at every company, particularly at SMEs.

A study by Insurantz.com found that just 16 per cent of UK SMEs had Twitter or Facebook accounts.  Their absence from the world of social networking was a missed marketing opportunity according to the business insurance firm, which surveyed a 1,000 small businesses.

MD James Pickering said: “Millions of people visit social-networking sites each day at work or at home and yet just 16 per cent of small businesses see digital media as an essential means of marketing their products and services.” (The Independent 5/7)

Age was a key driver in social media uptake and younger business owners embraced the medium for engagement.  Almost 25 per cent of SME owners aged 18 – 21 valued social media as an essential tool while less than 10 per cent of their older counterparts agreed and could not see the benefits.

However, widespread uptake may not be too far away.  Pickering explained: “Our research revealed that SME owners under 30 are the most likely to embrace this type of customer engagement, so don’t be surprised if online social marketing becomes increasingly important to the modern small business.”

On the flipside, 65 per cent of Fortune 100 companies had a corporate Twitter account and 82 per cent used the micro-blog to communicate with customers.  79 per cent used at least one social media site for engagement. (iStrategy 2010 7/6)

We’ve found that our clients – from SMEs to FTSE 100 companies – used social media to monitor the entire conversation around their brand to show they are listening and manage their reputation.  It only takes a few seconds to tweet, but missing a comment or viral campaign could cost more than time – whatever the size of your company.