But Facebook-adoption rates among those local businesses is actually much higher than I would've guessed, with a recent MerchantCircle report showing that 70% of local businesses are using the world's largest social network.
While 70% may not seem like a completely overwhelming number given how prevalent Facebook is nowadays, it's still a 20% increase from last year. That's a significant jump, and a sign of where small business marketing priorities are.
Another interesting stat from the report is that 32% of local businesses are utilizing the Facebook Places check-in feature, while 9% use Foursquare. At first glance, this appears to be simply Facebook Places outpacing Foursquare. However, I see two takeaways here:
- Facebook's stature and popularity are paving the way for new users to enter the location-based arena, making Facebook Places a desirable option for location-based marketing.
- Marketing and business interest in location-based marketing is much larger than general consumer interest. All of the statistics I've seen on location-based networking point to an adoption rate right around 5-8%, which is less than the usage rate by local businesses and much less than their use of Facebook Places.
All in all, this is great news for location-based networking as a whole. If the numbers in this report are correct, about 40% of local businesses are utilized location-based services. So although the general population isn't using it as much, that number could grow.