Why Small Biz is Slow to Web 2.0

An interesting post on Seeds of Growth/Small Business Trends: 3 Reasons Why SMBs Have Not Flipped For Web 2.0 discusses a recent study by Bredin Business Information.

[BBI] found that SMBs (small and mid-sized businesses) have not jumped on the Web 2.0 bandwagon just yet. The BBI study found only 14% of the 300 people surveyed believe blogs are and will be important, while wikis, social networks and webcasts faired slightly better.

Compare this to the 49% who think e-newsletters will remain important for the next five years, and you see how little love SMBs have for “the new stuff.” This comes as no real surprise. 

Although many of us small biz types do blog and wiki and twitter, the vast majority of non-techie, traditional entrepreneur types aren’t drinking the kool-aid just yet. Given the typical “fear of change” and “lack of time” arguments, here are a few reasons why.

Citing "silly names" and perceptions of social media as "silly kid stuff" as two of the reasons for shunning social media--and calling them excuses--author Brent Leary says that big tech companies have fallen short of their duty by being "silly role models." He writes (emphasis mine):

Until recently many big time tech companies really didn’t get Web 2.0. Some have been slow to use it themselves while others misused these tools to deliver traditional marketing messages.

Why use tools meant for collaborating and community building to deliver the same old tired one-way messaging? Web 2.0 is about conversations, exchanges and creating an atmosphere where people can freely express their opinion. Not to deliver marketing schlock.

I couldn't agree more. Over on Brent's Blog, he mentioned his article again and wrote:

...as my buddy Paul Greenberg pointed out...the small business folks who have bought in to Web 2.0 are true mentors, demonstrating to the big guys as well as other small businesses how these tools along with the right mindset can be extremely successful.