I’ve seen more and more local success by adopting social media to local SMEs, although what they do are rather tactical and advertising focused, they started to see more and more value from social media. According to a recent study by Small Business Success Index, small businesses has doubled their social media adoption from 12% in 2008 to 24% in 2009.

Many Small Biz just want to “be on it”

Leading ways small businesses are using social media include:

• 75% have a company page on a social networking site.
• 61% use social media for identifying and attracting new customers.
• 57% have built a network through a site like LinkedIn.
• 45% expect social media to be profitable in the next 12 months.

They don’t like to spend time on it

Small businesses have a number of concerns about social media, including:

• 50% say it takes more time than expected.
• 17% say social media lets people criticize their company on the internet.
• Only 6% say social media use has hurt the company more than helped it.

Other Findings

• Company web sites are a top technology investment in the next two years, with small businesses either adding new features/functionality to their existing Web sites or building one from scratch.
• The ability to showcase their products and services online to attract new customers is second in the hierarchy of technology investments small business owners plan to make in the next two years.
• Social media investments rank third in small business investments to be made in the next two years.