BANGALORE, INDIA: Social networking continues to play a key part in making small businesses successful, said a survey report by WeCanDo.biz, an online business network for sales leads and referrals.

The Business Networking Trends survey conducted amongst SMBs in UK, reveled that entrepreneurs are most interested in using online networking sites to win more business, with over 80 per cent  reporting that they have achieved this to some degree. Further, 92 per cent of respondents would recommend to their business contacts that they also network professionally online.

By contrast, using online networks for research, business advice or career development is of much less interest than a year ago. There is also a drop in the number of respondents holding the view that online networks help them get closer to customers.

This suggests that the largest of the business focused social networks, LinkedIn and Xing, which focus their sites towards discussions and career development but offer few tools to broker real business, are poorly serving the small business community.

It may be a function of the recession that entrepreneurs expect a much more tangible return from the time they invest online, with some concerns that not all networking sites may be delivering.

Nearly a quarter of small businesses are now using sites like Twitter for business networking. But 39 per cent of small business professionals are wary of Facebook for business, refusing to mix their business contacts with their friends on the networking site; and two thirds of entrepreneurs are concerned about the security and integrity of online networks in general.

Interestingly, whereas half of respondents plan to maintain the same levels of face to face networking activity in the year ahead, a slightly larger number (55 per cent) plan to increase the time they dedicate to networking online.

In other key findings, the study reveals it continues to be smaller companies who are benefiting the most from modern networking opportunities, in comparison with larger companies, who continue to be
wary of using online networking to further their businesses.

The Internet has opened up new ways for entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.