More than a third of UK small businesses use Facebook to market their products and services

"Social networks have overtaken local directories such as Yellow Pages and Thomson and print advertising in the UK as the main way small businesses seek out new customers, according to research published on Monday.
Over one-third of UK small businesses say that they now use Facebook to market their products and services, compared to 27 per cent that rely on local directories for their advertising.
Twitter has also become popular with UK-based small businesses and their owners – over one-in-six use micro blogging service to scout for new customers and to market their services. As a result Twitter is fast catching up with those who say they use print (21 per cent) and online advertising (20 per cent) advertising for their marketing."

Source:  Data from Basekit, reported by the Financial Times, 14th May 2012

Methodology:  "The results of the survey are based on an online poll conducted last month by Opinium Research among 500 small business owners each employing under 49 people."