The majority of small business owners say there’s gold in them there social media sites. Well, maybe not gold, but at least something to look into that’s potentially valuable to businesses.

SurePayroll, the online payroll service, conducted a survey asking small business owners if they believe social networking has business value. A majority, 55%, said yes. What’s more, the survey indicates that one out of every five of the small business owners polled had actually obtained at least one new customer as a direct result of using social media.

When asked which social media sites they have heard of, it’s no surprise that the 3 largest social media sites (here in the U.S.) are the ones most have heard of.  Over 80% had heard of  Myspace, YouTube and Facebook.  This chart of survey data shows that brand recognition is high for those 3 sites among the small business people surveyed.

Interestingly, though, when asked which social sites they actually use for their businesses, the picture looked different.  LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace were the top 3, with YouTube and Yahoo Groups tying for 4th place, as this chart of survey results shows:

What’s the bottom line?   Notice that LinkedIn is the hands-down favorite for small business owners to actually use.  Digg is none too popular with the small biz crowd despite being the “poster child” of social media sites.

SurePayroll’s Online Marketing Manager, David Rohrer, says small businesses need social media to stay competitive.

“It is no longer just an outlet for personal use — it’s rapidly becoming a must for business success,” says Rohrer. “Big business is tapping into the blogosphere and posting their company profile pages in online communities. Small business owners need to do the same. What’s so great about the online world is you don’t need a million-dollar marketing budget. In fact, the most effective online connections are free personal communications from a business owner to their community.”

The SurePayroll press release on this topic is here.