We love data. Data makes the world go ’round as far as we’re concerned here. You could listen to a thousand marketers give you a thousand reasons why you should pay them to do your SEO and New Media marketing and all of it could be complete bunk at the end of the day.

But show a small business owner the numbers and they’re more likely to take you seriously.

Allbusiness.com recently heralded a survey study conducted by Marketing Sherpa that found the following:

MarketingSherpa, a research firm and publisher of marketing know-how, recently released and presented the results of their Search Marketing Benchmark Report that included 2,200 survey respondents and reviewed best practices to improve search and social media marketing integration. The key finding of the survey per the Company is “search and social media have incredible synergy”.

The survey showed that 64 percent of the organizations surveyed do indeed integrate social media with search engine marketing, with those organizations in the strategic phases being much more likely to integrate the two. Also, the report indicates that social impacts organic search performance where “search marketers who integrate social media achieve a 59 percent better rate of conversion”. This is far from insignificant. In fact, it’s quite significant.

That’s the point, isn’t it? Of the nearly 600 million Facebook users, for example, not all of them are your potential consumers, despite the fantasy pronouncements of many New Media marketers. It’s building, solidifying and increasing that ROI that matters. The successful shopkeeper of old who came out from behind the counter to meet, greet and assist his customers in any way he could laid the groundwork for today’s succesful online marketing.

What’s new is old again.

Come out from around your New Media network counters and meet, greet and assist your online customers with the same zeal and enthusiasm as your Grandmother did. Answer their questions, make them smile and they’ll remember to tell their friends about you when it comes time to make their decisions about purchasing a product.

If you’re a small business that’s hesitant about getting your feet wet in the global splash pool that is New Media, give us a ring and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you have.