Sign up for email updates from SBAReceive helpful business tips and upcoming events in your area.


Privacy Policy
Log in to SBA.gov:
Enter your SBA.gov username.
Enter the password that accompanies your username.

Community Header Banner

Newbie Student Question

by UTGradStudent, Window Shopper

  • Created: March 9, 2011, 9:32 pm
  • Updated: March 28, 2011, 12:43 pm
Share:
2 comments

Hello,     I am new to this forum and have a few questions. Can I pose the following questions to the forum members? If yes - where is the right place to post these questions? 

  1. I am a grad student from the University of Texas and am doing market validation research as part of an MBA course on how Small Business Owners use social media to engage with their customers. The focus is on customer service interactions via social media. I am having a tough time getting data on out how much $ does a small business spend (if any) on customer service? All the data elements (census etc) only have total revenue numbers . Any pointers in the right direction will be highly highly appreciated! You will make a poor grad student extremely happy
  2. I also have a short survey that I have built out (hosted on surveygizmo) to collect data. Is there a place where I can post a link to this survey?

 Thanks much!

Tags: Discuss Popular Topics, Marketing & Advertising
‹ Question...Can I advertise my business at my home? Getting Consumer Labels on Products ›

OneToughMutt | Window Shopper | 4/22/2011 - 10:07 pm

Hello,  One of the reasons businesses love social media is that it's a low cost way to handle customer service. One of the reasons I think you'll find it's hard to determine the exact amount companies spend is that it's not just a blanket "customer service" cost. When you pay anything for social networking it's a marketing, sales, and customer service expense. Depending on the size of the business and its needs / the networks it decides to work in you could get away with doing everything for free (so $0) to spending $3000 a year for something like Hubspot (there are more expensive platforms out there too)  For our business, we take advantage of free services to handle social networking and customer service. When the demand builds we will upgrade at which point if we keep with our current services it would cost about $30 a month if not less.
Professional Web Site: http://www.onetoughmutt.com

NicoleD | Former Moderator | 3/28/2011 - 12:46 pm

Feel free to share your social media experiences with UTGradStudent by replying to this thread.   UTGradStudent - you can place a hyperlink to your survey in your personal profile.  Navigate to "My Account" on the right of this page and select edit "Personal Profile."  You will see a cell where you can enter your professional website link.