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Posted on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 04:55 PM by
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Earlier this month at the ILM West conference, Google self-reported a big number: eight million claimed Place Pages. See David Mihm’s coverage and the Kelsey Group’s coverage for confirmation, as well as other Google local/mobile numbers. Mike Blumenthal has posted about the growth of claimed Place Pages, based on what’s now three times that Google has self-reported statistics over the past 20 months. In a nutshell, the number has doubled in that time frame from four million in April 2010 to the current eight million. Facebook: ??? Businesses with PagesUnfortunately, the number of businesses with Facebook Pages is a mystery. Facebook isn’t saying — I’ve emailed the communications team twice in the past couple weeks and received no reply — and, to my knowledge, never has given a number. There’ve been numerous surveys and similar attempts to guesstimate the number of small businesses with Facebook pages. Greg Sterling wrote earlier this year about one survey that said 54% of SMBs have a Facebook page. Some surveys peg the number higher, while others have it lower. Before some of our GetListed Local University workshops, we poll attendees and ask if they have a claimed Google Place Page, if they have a Facebook page, etc. As Mike Blumenthal reported from our recent Western New York event, the numbers skewed pretty heavily toward Facebook. (Admittedly, that was a very small sample of SMBs, but my memory is that the responses always seem to reflect similar percentages.) One of the problems with any survey, though, is the possibility (likelihood?) of mistaken self-reporting. How many SMBs who take these surveys actually have a personal Facebook profile that they use for business purposes, but don’t really have a Facebook Page? As of 2007, the US Census Bureau estimated that there were about 27.7 million small businesses in the US. If we use the 54% statistic that I mentioned two paragraphs above, that would give a rough estimate of about 15 million SMBs with Facebook Pages. That’s a little less than double the number of claimed Google Place Pages. I don’t really want to put a lot of stock in that but, for now, it may be the best we can do. Your thoughts? In your experience, do more small business owners that you know have claimed Google Place Pages or a Facebook Page? (Given that a fair amount of local search folks read this blog, I’m guessing the replies will tilt towards Google more than they do in the general populace.) This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing. ? MORE NEWS FROM SMALL BUSINESS SEMWhy I’m Not Sure Google Will “Nail” the Places-Plus IntegrationDavid Mihm wrote an epic post earlier this week about the eventual merge/integration of Google Places and Google Plus. (It would help if you read that post before continuing on here.) SBSM Flashback: May 2011For those of you who are new SBSM readers & subscribers, here’s a list of noteworthy posts you probably missed from one year ago. I try to put together a post like this each month to introduce new readers to old content that might be worth reading. Google’s Freshness Algorithm in ActionReal quick post here (I hope) about fresh content in Google’s search results. Background Google has been emphasizing fresh content in its search results for some time now. That link goes back to November 2011, and when I write on Search Engine Land about Google’s monthly search quality ... The Fallacy of Timing Blog Posts & Social Media UpdatesStudies that claim to tell you when the best time to publish a blog post or share content socially are, in my opinion, mostly a load of crap. One Month Away: Local University – Advanced! – in SeattleWe’re exactly a month away from what should be a terrific day of local search marketing information! RELATED SMALL BUSINESS NEWSHow and Why I Use LinkedIn Groups to Build My BusinessAs I’ve written here in the past, I think there are solid business reasons for participating in most social networks these days, but if your business sells primarily to other businesses, you must get more active on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not the biggest or most talked about network these day, bu... Is Seek or Shout the Holy Grail for PR, Bloggers and the Disconnected Media?This is a guest post from Yvette Pistorio of Cision. Two shifts have dramatically changed the way media and public relations professionals interact over the past few years: the move away from email in favor of online social channels, and the emergence of versatile, freelance content creators who ar... Content marketing is important but not free!One of the things that irks me is when I hear a marketing “expert” extoll the virtues of content (or social or digital) marketing and to close the sale — they remind their audience — “and best of all, it’s free.” A Very Short Message to the Shitdiots at @KloutA Very Short Message to the Shitdiots at @Klout originally appeared on Danny Brown - under a Creative Commons license. State of IndependenceYears ago I worked in retail on both sides. I started out working for an electrical goods chain store, then moved onto a smaller local one. |
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This is one of the long-running questions in my local search peer network, and perhaps one of the more important questions going forward when it comes to small businesses and online marketing. The general consensus is that there are more small businesses with Facebook Pages than with claimed Google Place Pages. That comes from anecdotal evidence and various survey estimates, but not from hard, reliable statistics.