We released some interesting results from the MYOB Business Monitor this week, which revealed that only 35% of Aussie businesses have a website. This figure has surprised some, however it’s consistent with our research over the last few years.
As there was a keen interest in the results, I thought I’d share some of the ‘breakdowns’ with you.
While the national average for businesses that have a website is 35%. When looking at the results by business size the results show…
- 29% of sole traders have a website
- 35% of micro businesses (1 – 4 employees) have a website
- 57% of small businesses (5 – 19 employees) have a website
- 51% of medium businesses (20 – 199 employees) have a website
And when looking at this by state, business owners in Western Australia lead the pack in regards to having a website (at 40%), followed by businesses in New South Wales (37%), Victoria (34%), Queensland (32%) and South Australia (27%).
The current results also indicate a big gap between the hype associated with social media and actual adoption, with only 18% of Aussie businesses using social media (like Facebook, YouTube, MySpace or Twitter) to promote their business. The owner of the coffee shop down the street, the laundrette in the arcade or the fish and chip shop across the road aren’t jumping on twitter or Facebook to promote their business – they are focussed on providing good service to their customers.
With around 20% of Aussie business owners being early adopters of technology, seeing a result of 18% using social media to promote their business, might be surprising, but is to be expected, as most users of social media will be early adopters.
The results for businesses that use social media to promote their business are close when comparing between business size. Small businesses are the most likely to use social media (21%), followed by sole traders (19%), medium businesses (17%) and micro businesses (16%).
Businesses in South Australia are ploughing ahead of other states when it comes to using social media to promote their business, with 27% of businesses in SA using this medium. As for the other states it’s 22% in Queensland, 20% in Western Australia, 17% in Victoria and 15% in New South Wales.
We expect these adoption rates for websites and social media to rise as competition from global providers increases but right now small businesses in Australia have their heads down and are focussed on the job at hand.
Do you have any examples of businesses using social media well to promote their business? Who is leading the way in Australia when it comes to leveraging the power of the internet?
