A survey by the Wall Street Journal says that 60% of small business owners believe social media is valuable, and that LinkedIn is the most useful of all the major social networking sites:

The WSJ surveyed 835 small business owners for the survey, and published an article about it earlier this week. The survey found that only 40% of the business owners surveyed had employees dedicated to social media efforts; half said they spend 1-5 hours per week on social media and one-third spend no time at all.

One respondent credits social media for increasing his website traffic from 800 to 12,000 visitors per month in the past two years. He says LinkedIn has been the dominant traffic driver for his B2B business.

Small businesses that benefit from social media have figured out what works and what doesn’t. They have a target audience they know well and know where to find. Not all social media networks will work equally for law firm marketers; you need to create a profile of your ideal client then find out which social media sites they are most likely to be found. Create a concise message and be consistent. Engage with relevant content. And keep at it.