Phoenix small businesses boast big online presence
Apr 12, 2013, 1:26 PM
Phoenix small businesses rank third as the most Web-savvy establishments in the U.S.
According to the Phoenix Business Journal, a study conducted by Radius, a market research organization in San Francisco, Calif., found that about 65 percent of small business residing in Phoenix have an online identity that includes maintaining tools such as a company website, Facebook page or Twitter account. Radius calculated its findings by dividing the quantity of Web-savvy small businesses by the sum of small business in American cities.
“The fact that the majority of small businesses in Phoenix are embracing new technologies implies that small businesses in Phoenix are taking advantage of the tools they need to attract new customers and keep returning ones,” said Radius CEO and founder Darian Shirazi. “It means that the small business economy is constantly growing and evolving.”
Of the two billion figures accessed in its database, Radius gathered that 34 percent of Phoenix small businesses use a website, only behind Austin, Texas, San Francisco and San Diego, Calif. Austin had the highest number of small businesses with websites at 42.4 percent.
In the ever-growing realm of social media, small businesses in general have plenty of room for improvement. Radius said that 13 percent have a Facebook account in Phoenix, while 2.61 percent are on Twitter. However, Phoenix was not far behind other leading cities. San Diego small businesses had the most Facebook accounts at 23.5 percent. Seattle, Wash., led in total business Twitter users at more than 3 percent.
Shirazi explained that Phoenix’s small business market has shown economic progress, the national scale with more work to do.
“There are 5 million businesses in the U.S. with physical locations that employ less than five people,” he said. “And there are a lot of local businesses that have no incentive to grow because of the obstacles our government puts in place for small business growth.”
