A new survey from Regus, a provider of business resources, found that 43 percent of U.S. companies utilize social media to gain more customers, and interact with them.

With 50 percent of U.S. businesses using websites such as Twitter to engage and connect with customers, and 55 percent encouraging employees to join social networks such as LinkedIn, it makes sense that 38 percent of companies allocate 20 percent of their marketing budget to social media.

A small business could start an online presence and community forum, enhance customer service and customer awareness of the company, create and maintain a public profile, and receive helpful feedback directly from the consumer.

A study released by Share This, a producer of website sharing widgets, reported sharing to be responsible for 31 percent of website referral traffic. It also found 38 percent of sharing traffic came from Facebook, 11 percent from Twitter, and 17 percent from e-mail.

Small businesses can share links to their products or services via social media, and set up widgets so consumers can share information about the company to other people directly from the website.

The Share This study also found that 80 percent of people share content from on specific category such as business, health, or arts and entertainment. This shows the importance of offering a variety of topics and links beyond the category of their product or service to hit a larger audience.

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