Businesses must appreciate that they need to have an online presence.

Businesses using parcel delivery and courier services must realise that an online presence, particularly through social media, "is not an option", an internet marketing expert has said.

Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald about why the Australian business community has not fully embraced social media, he warned that firms that continue to eschew Facebook and the like are in danger.

"Small business in Australia has still not grappled with what happened online in 2002, let alone 2011," he told the newspaper.
"And the thing about 2011, I think, is you can simply no longer avoid online. It's not an option."

His comments would appear to be borne out by the statistics.

The Optus Business Social Media Index, released today earlier this year in association with the Council of Small Business of Australia, showed that 28 per cent of small to medium-sized enterprises in the country use social media, investing an average of 6.6 hours a week to maintain their presence.

Over half (56 per cent) of these types of companies have no social media presence and have no plans to have in the future.

Posted by Lucy Pritchard

Article Added: 09/12/2010 16:26:06