This article originally appeared in Franchise Times, a monthly publication focused on the start-up, growth, and sustainability of franchises in North America.

A couple of months ago, I moderated a panel on social media for the Public Relations Society of America Chicago. Along with some local big hitters, Jack Monson from eNR Services was on the panel. I tell you this because eNR plays in the small and local business industries and we had a conversation about using the Internet for business growth.

As the moderator, I had the privilege of asking the questions and taking the conversation where I wanted it to go. So I relayed some stats from a survey that Citibank did about social media use among small business owners (thanks to Jason Falls for blogging about the survey initially). (more…)