Small businesses outpacing the big boys in social media engagement (infographic)

With 46 percent of the U.S. population on social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, small business owners—like Sam Malone—would be doing themselves a favor by joining the likes of Gary Vaynerchuck and getting to their nearest neighborhood pub online network to connect with new clientele.

Don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuck is? He helped his father’s New Jersey-based liquor store increase its earning by $46 million by engaging with consumers on social media.

If you think that sounds far-fetched, it probably has something to do with the 51 percent of Facebook users who are more likely to buy from brands they’ve connected with online, and that percentage is even higher for Twitter users.

And that’s something small businesses—more than they’re larger competitors—seem to have figured out. Nearly half of local merchants have successfully connected with customers via social media compared with 28 percent of large companies.