Those in the marketing world could be forgiven for thinking that every company in the UK makes use of social media in some way. Surely, in this hyper-connected age where consumers want personalized experiences, setting your company up a Facebook and Twitter page should be an early step?

Well, it turns out that a significant portion of enterprises in the UK are not making use of the potential benefits that social media has to offer.

Company formation experts Turnerlittle have analyzed figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) on social media usage among businesses in the UK. They found that 60% of businesses are using social media, a figure which drops slightly to 57% for small businesses.

There are clear differences between larger companies and smaller ones, with 90% of those with over one thousand employees having a social media presence. In contrast, 51% of smaller companies do not include a link to their social media pages on their websites.

There is a similar gap when it comes to creating content. 80% of bigger fish (over a thousand employees) use blogging, compared to 39% of smaller companies.

Getting left behind?

The research by Turnerlittle also shows that 20% of small businesses are not planning on investing in social media in 2018. This is despite the fact that the ONS figures show that businesses number one use for social media is to develop a business’ image or to market its products.

The second most cited reason was to gain customer feedback or respond to queries.

These two uses of social media align closely with the level of contact and service that it appears customers are increasingly coming to expect from the companies they interact with. According to Turnerlittle, 77% of Twitter users said that they have increased feelings of positivity towards a brand when it responds to their tweets.

Social media is also an important place for consumers to learn about products and brands, with 39% citing this as an important reason for using it.