Digital tools have made access to resources and information so much more convenient, especially for businesses. Ever since social media became an information hub for businesses, with tips and advice from business owners of all sizes and success levels, running a business has become a lot easier, it seems.
MoneySuperMarket did some research and found that 41% of decision makers for UK businesses use social media to get their business advice.
Before this, businesses would typically hire people for the kind of advice they can now just search on their preferred social media site and within seconds, thousands of posts will pop up with different answers to whatever questions they had.
What Topics Are Businesses Searching For On Social Media?
According to the research, the topic business owners hop onto social media the most for, is self-assessment or tax returns advice. The next most searched topic was business expenses and it had to do with questions on what fees they can claim back.
The numbers looked like this:
- 31% for self-assessment or tax returns
- 24% for business expenses to claim
- 21% for side hustle or extra income tips
- 20% for VAT or thresholds advice
- 15% for how much tax is to be set aside
- 14% for business banking or cash flow advice
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How Many Businesses Are Doing This?
The research found that the biggest group of businesses using social media for advice was medium sized business, which was categorised as businesses with 50-249 employees. Of the surveyed, over a quarter said they “very or quite often” use social media to help run their business when it comes to advice.
It doesn’t look the same for micro business owners, it seems, because only 6% of business owners with less than 10 employees say they do this as well.
How long a business has been operating for also plays a role in who uses social media for advice as 5% of business owners who have a company younger than 5 years use it very often. For those that are over 35 years, it’s a lot lower at 2%.
Alicia Hempsted, Business Insurance Expert at MoneySuperMarket commented. She said, “Social media can be a powerful tool for useful information for business owners, however, it’s essential that decision-makers fact-check the advice with verified sources and professional government guidelines to ensure that it is correct.”
This becomes especially true when AI comes into the picture, because now, businesses don’t just risk the possibility of being misinformed through social media. Now, turning to AI bots that are notorious for giving out false information can be just as risky. Fact-checking should still be standard and business owners should make sure the sources they use are trustworthy.
It’d also be interesting to see how this impacts businesses such as consulting companies, whose purpose is to advise other businesses. On one hand, their clients might see this as a way to save money, which takes away the need to pay for the advice. But on the other hand, this could be an opportunity for these consultants to find creative ways to use social media to offer their services – because that’s clearly where businesses are looking.
