Social media is a key tool to help small businesses generate revenue and connect with current and future customers. Raising brand awareness is important and social media provides a cost efficient – or free if you don’t outsource your campaigns – method of reaching new consumers. With Facebook launching an initiative to help educate small businesses on Facebook marketing best practices and about half of all businesses utilizing a Facebook page, it’s clear that businesses are willing to adopt this form of advertisement, but how do they use it?

This infographic by crowdSPRING outlines the way small businesses utilize social networks. The top social network is Facebook, utilized by 27 percent of small businesses, followed by LinkedIn used by 18 percent and Twitter used by 7 percent. Only 8 percent of small businesses use location-based services or blogs.

Social media use among small businesses has doubled from 2009 to 2010 – 61 percent of business owners use social media to attract new customers, 75 percent have a company page on a social networking site and 45 percent expect their social media activities to be profitable within the next year. They might not be wrong; there are proven results. Gary Vaynerchuk, a social media enthusiast, worked 12 hours a day engaging in online markets. This helped the earnings of his father’s liquor store skyrocket from $4 million to $50 million. This just demonstrates the importance of connecting with your customers in new ways.

Check out the infographic below and click on the image to view the full size.