5 Social Media Lessons Gleaned from a New LinkedIn SMB Study

Patrick McFadden • April 28, 2014

Unless your small or medium size business has a huge marketing budget, social media is likely the first place you turn to reach ideal customers. Indeed,  according to a study released this year  by LinkedIn, an overwhelming percentage of small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) are using social media to market to customers, grow their audience, and extract business insights.

Because of this, there is no shortage of social media advice.  Unfortunately, much of it is often at odds, conflicting and even confusing.

This is why sound research is so important and why today we at Indispensable Marketing decided to continue your free marketing education by posting a statistically valid social media survey of small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB). As we studied the data over a course of several weeks, we have come to several conclusions based on research.

Here are five lessons we have learned from the study:

Lesson#1.  Social Media Creates a Stream of Revenue

Now that more and more SMBs are investing time and money into social media participation, people are looking for ways to measure the return in terms of direct business rather than fans, friends and followers. Eighty-one percent of SMBs reported using social media, and of this group, nearly all of them (94 percent) use it to market their businesses. The study also found that social media provides SMBs with a solution for their number one challenge: finding new customers. Of those surveyed, 64 percent stated that finding new customers was their greatest concern.

Lesson:   There are only three ways to grow your business and social media solves one of them: adding more customers. With the opportunity to build know, like and trust with new customers SMBs should discover and communicate a problem-solving core point of differentiation that attracts ideal customers.

Lesson#2. Social Media is Worth the Effort

Most   SMBs believed that social media was moving the needle for their organization. 49 percent of these SMBs also see social media as a valuable source for learning about their markets and about growing a business – for example, they use social media to connect with their peers, discover best practices, learn from other experts, and get answers to their business questions. However, there is a clear correlation between effort and results:  Those that were more willing to work at social media saw better results.  Social media can be productive and it certainly takes an investment of time. Those that invest the time are more likely to see a return in the long run.

Lesson:   When committing to social media, keep in mind it is a marathon, not a sprint.  An aspiration of a magic growth pill that leads to instant sales is setting you up for disappointment.  

Lesson#3. Spending is an Untapped Growth Opportunity

LinkedIn   survey shows compelling links between the growth of a business and its spending on social media. Three out of five businesses surveyed are in growth mode – showing an increase in revenue from year to year – while one in six businesses are in “hyper growth” mode, meaning that they’re showing significant increases in revenue. That is not surprising, since prospective clients are not waiting to be sold to — they’re proactively gathering information when they search, mining social networks and soliciting peer recommendations.

Lesson:   Your advertising spending must be used in highly targeted, measurable ways to promote awareness of education based content such as white papers, audios and seminars. It carries the highest cost and lowest credibility, but is also the only lead generation tactic that can be completely controlled. Advertising works when utilized as described and must be part of the overall mix.

Lesson#4.  Create Content That Turns Suspects into Prospects

According to the survey, 93 percent of SMBs are driven to take action by valuable information they see on social networks about financial services. For financial services this means your social media marketing and advertising efforts must focus on getting a group of those “suspects” to raise their hands and tell you that they want to know more about your firm. Once they do that, they become your prospects. The future of social media marketing is less about demand creation and more about organizing behavior. People don’t really need more information, they need insight, they need guidance and they need an experience that allows them to behave like they want to behave.

Lesson:   Service providers should take advantage of this marketing opportunity by creating relevant and useful content to be distributed on social networks allowing SMBs to behave like they want. This content must be focused on what SMBs say they need but currently aren’t receiving, such as best practices guides, information on innovative business technologies, and new product information.

Lesson#5.  LinkedIn is in the Path Way for Moving Someone From Initial Awareness to Advocate

In order to generate leads and be found, businesses must put themselves in the path of people who are learning about, asking about, and shopping about their particular industries. Fifty-seven percent of all SMBs surveyed (and 69 percent of hyper growth SMBs) said that LinkedIn is their favored social destination for learning more about financial products and services. In the path to purchase for financial services, LinkedIn is a community that SMBs trust and value.  With social media, we do not simply build a presence and hope people visit. Instead, we go to where our customers and prospects are spending their time.

Lesson:   It may seem like everyone is on a platform, but it is important to understand if the users there are the people you want to engage. A less popular site may be the answer to driving business results.

* * *

Social media for the small to mid size firms, however, has always been and shall remain one of the best places to gain exposure for great content. Shares, likes, embeds and retweets are the currency of marketing in social media and always have been.

About the Author:  Patrick McFadden is the  marketing consultant  to call when you want GROWTH and SALES … not just words.. He is also an advisor and featured marketing contributor to  American Express Open Forum  and has been named a marketing thought leader for small businesses.

The Missing Layer in AI: Why Judgment, Not Just Data, Will Define the Next Era of Intelligence

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.

Everyone Talks About AI Judgment. We Built It.

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.

We Found the Missing Layer AI Has Been Waiting For

By Patrick McFadden • May 2, 2025
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
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