Shane Vaughan

Two major 2011 trends collide in 2012:  the adoption of social media by local businesses and the dramatic growth of content marketing at the national level.  Local businesses, now heavily using social media, will be desperate for “what to say” via these channels.  Their national counterparts demonstrated in 2011 that content marketing was a highly effective B2B and B2C marketing approach.  As a result, 2012 will see local businesses rapidly adopting content marketing as a marketing strategy and promote that content strongly via social channels.  
Social media is here to stay*:

- 27% of small businesses are using Facebook for their business
- 18% of small businesses are using LinkedIn for their business 
- 7% of small businesses are using Twitter for their business
- On Facebook alone, 69% of small businesses reported receiving customer recommendations through the site 


The Content Marketing Institute reports key stats from 2011:

- Nine out of 10 national marketers are using content marketing to grow their business
- B2B marketers dedicate approximately 26% of their total budgets to content marketing initiative
- On average, national marketers employ eight different content marketing tactics


As more and more local businesses flock to social media, they will all desperately need to fill those open “post an update” boxes.  Content marketing has demonstrated significant success at the national level, and 2012 will see local marketers demonstrate a similar level of success.   


Kick off the new marketing year and join us on Tuesday, January 10th to learn how national brands will capitalize on the evolving local marketing landscape. Register for the webcast.

* University of Maryland School of Business Study