North businesses need to up game online

Northland businesses are lagging behind their counterparts elsewhere in promoting themselves via social media and on line.

Northland businesses are underperforming in social media and lagging behind other regions in online activity, according to a report on the region's digital maturity.

The survey of about 750 Northland businesses showed that, compared to the national average of 45 per cent digital maturity, Northland lagged behind at 39 per cent.

Of those surveyed in the region, 80 per cent had a website (85 per cent nationally) but only 37 per cent (42 per cent nationally) used a website to sell products or services.

Only 53 per cent (59 per cent nationally) of businesses had a mobile-friendly website and just 50 per cent (52 per cent nationally) had businesses that were integrated with social media.

Meanwhile, just 25 per cent said they found value in using social media.

A total of 39 per cent of the 750 businesses advertised online (41 per cent nationally), while just 35 per cent (37 per cent nationally) advertised on Facebook.

A whopping 72 per cent of businesses (71 per cent nationally) used social media to engage with customers but only 25 per cent (22 per cent nationally) felt it was of great value to the business.

There was also a low uptake of cloud computing, with just 29 per cent (43 per cent nationally) using software for storage and backup, 38 per cent (46 per cent nationally) for finance and accounting, 16 per cent (16 per cent nationally) using instant messenger and just 25 per cent (34 per cent nationally) having the ability to operate anyway, anytime in the case of a disaster.

The survey was conducted online in 2015 and 2016 by Digital Journey, a social enterprise sponsored by Chorus, Google, MBIE and Spark.

Digital Journey's general manager, Stuart Dillon-Roberts said the Digital Health Checks were compiled for Northland, Auckland, Wellington, Canterbury and Otago.

He said the health check featured mostly tourism, retail and service industries from the Northland region.

"Given that Kiwis spent $4.7 billion online last year, this is a missed opportunity for the Northland businesses without e-commerce," he said in the report.

Northland Chamber of Commerce chief executive Tony Collins said businesses should make it easy for customers to do business with them but rural businesses differed to urban.

"Regional areas tend to have stronger person-to-person networks too."

He said cloud-based software could help increase productivity. The Chamber, through the Regional Business Partnership, provided support and marketing training.

He said that compared with the October 2014 State of the Digital Nation, a MYOB business monitor special report, the results were positive.

That report stated that just nine per cent of Northland businesses had a website, four per cent had a social media site only and 29 per cent had both.

Whangarei-based social media expert Philippa Mannagh had noticed some hesitation from businesses around having an online presence.

"There seems to be a scepticism and a do-it-yourself attitude that ... sadly we do see many businesses left behind in a world that is growing too fast for them to get their heads around."

"A local farming company once told me that being online wouldn't work for them and after two weeks with a Facebook business page, they landed one of their biggest contracts from a group in the South Island, who found their page and contact details."