Small businesses in the vanguard of internet use are raising their profile and attracting new customers but the majority are still selling in the physical world, a study for Google finds, reported by the Telegraph.

- 65% of the businesses were investing in natural search and 62% in online advertising so customers could find their websites, online 40% of these early adopters used online ordering and just 29% accepted online payments from customers.
- 30% were running a business promotion group on a social media website and 20% were publishing business updates on micro blogging site Twitter.
- Companies making the greatest use of the web for sales and marketing grew at an average of 4.1% annually over the last three years. Lower web users grew 0.6% a year.

We can't imagine who they spoke to of the 900 surveyed! Social media accounts for any tiny proportion of traffic and effective online retailers should grow at 25% per annum.

Here's the full study from the Boston Consulting Group.