Silver Spring, MD (PRWEB) May 26, 2011

In a survey recently conducted by Webs, the popular, do-it-yourself solution for website creation, more than 77% of small business owners said they plan to spend more of their marketing budget on social media in 2011 than they did in 2010. This figure suggests that entrepreneurs have seen the power of social media and are intent on increasing their usage of it. Facebook was overwhelmingly the respondents’ favorite tool, with 68% indicating that it is the social media tool they use most for business.

Other key findings include:

Social media is widely used by small business: 69% of small business owners said they currently use social media (including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and blogs) at their companies. Of those that don’t currently use social media, 41% indicated they would in the next three months.

Small business owners are still learning how to use social media: 59% said that social media has either “not met” or only “slightly met” their expectations, and yet 77.5% of respondents plan to spend more on social media in 2011 than they did 2010. This suggests that entrepreneurs see the value of social media even as they strive to master its learning curve.

Too little time, not enough resources: 43% of small business owners surveyed indicated they have allocated only 0-10% of their marketing budgets to social media. Plus, 36.5% of the small business owners said they update their social media content only once a week or less.

Social media is used equally across age groups: While younger small business owners are using social media in high numbers (72.7% for 21-24 year old respondents; 72.9% for 25-34 year old respondents), respondents in older categories are also significant users (35-44 year olds: 68.9%; 45-54 year olds: 58.4%).

Webs CEO Haroon Mokhtarzada commented on the importance of social media for small business owners: “Social media allows small businesses to connect to customers in an immediate, more personal way than traditional marketing. By using the right social media tools small business owners can have a professional online presence that attracts and retains customers. The Webs Family of Products can help them develop this social presence along with a professional website and a captivating Facebook business page.”

The Small Business Social Media Survey was conducted in May 2011 and gathered the opinions of 1,132 small business owners about their use of social media. The complete results of the survey are available upon request by contacting Chuck Hester at hester@webs.com.

About Webs, Inc.
Webs (http://webs.com) is the world’s largest do-it-yourself website-building solution serving over 40 million users. Webs enables small and micro-businesses to easily create a great-looking website and project a professional image. The Webs family of products—including Webs, ContactMe, and Pagemodo—provide small businesses with simple and cost-effective ways to launch and grow their presences across web, social, and mobile platforms. Founded in 2001 by the Mokhtarzada brothers, Webs is funded by Novak Biddle Venture Partners and Columbia Capital. For more information, contact Chuck Hester at hester(at)webs(dot)com or visit http://www.Webs.com,http://www.ContactMe.com and http://www.Pagemodo.com to sign up for free today.

###