Six out of 10 small business owners say they believe social-media tools are valuable to their company’s growth, but most aren’t impressed by Twitter Inc. Just 3 percent of 835 business owners surveyed by The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International said Twitter had the most potential to help their companies. Professional networking service LinkedIn Corp. topped the survey, with 41 percent of respondents singling it out as potentially beneficial to their company. Sixteen percent picked YouTube, the video service owned by Google Inc., and 14 percent chose social network Facebook Inc.
Owners of small firms generally have limited money and time to figure out the most useful ways to tap into social media. In the survey, just four in 10 business owners said they have employees dedicated to social-media campaigns. Nearly half of them spend between one and five hours weekly on social media, and one-third spend no time at all. The survey was conducted online Jan. 14-23, among businesses in a range of industries with less than $20 million in annual revenue.
