LOS ANGELES, US: In a proposed answer to the shortage of leads and new clients for small-to-medium businesses (SMBs), ReferQuest.com, a refer-and-reward platform, has developed a Facebook application to help businesses experience growth, in the down economy.

The ReferQuest Facebook app, available at http://apps.facebook.com/referquest/, allows business owners to utilize the power of social networking to develop leads and acquire new customers. SMBs can use the free application to offer finders' fees to reward customer acquisition ("$10 reward if you refer a new customer"). The ReferQuest Facebook application is available to Facebook users in North America.

During a recession, advertising budgets are amongst the first cutbacks for many SMBs. However, according to separate studies conducted by McGraw-Hill Research and American Business Press, businesses that continued advertising, or increased their advertising, during a recession, saw substantial growth during the economic dip and after it ended.

While the ReferQuest Facebook application may not be a viable alternative to print-and-web advertising, it does allow business owners to acquire warm leads, or leads from a known party, with exposure via viral networking channels where payment is only required on a per-acquired-customer basis. As with other business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) promotions via social networks, the ReferQuest application is the online version of word-of-mouth advertising.

According to Camille Landau, the CEO of ReferQuest.com, the benefits for small-to-midsized business owners are noteworthy:

* Businesses can acquire new customers directly, in stark contrast to traditional advertising methods
* Advertising is free, and payment is only due upon a successfully acquired customer
* Businesses can find customers, partners, and employees who are unreachable via other advertising methods