Good or bad, but many big brands now worry about their existence in the social media and services and work to improve it. But what’s about a small business? Does it work in a social media or services like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter , believe in a social media and think that it is an effective tool? It seems, not yet.

According to the survey carried by Citibank and GfK Roper, 76% of small business representatives have not found social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to be helpful in generating business leads or for expanding their business during the last year, while 86% say they have not used social networking sites to get business advice or information.

In this question, they trust general search engine sites such as Google and Yahoo!.

But then, a small business (42% of respondents) reported they have made greater use of their company's website to generate business leads and sales. Among companies with 20 to 99 employees the percentage is even higher (57%).

Also, to generate business leads and sales a small business is using email marketing (28%) and online advertising (25%).

The survey for Citibank was carried by GFK Roper during the period August 20-27, 2009 among 500 small business executives across the United States.