When it comes to which social media channels have the mostpotential to help small businesses, respondents to a recent surveysaid LinkedIn topped the list.

The Wall Street Journal and Vistage International, aSan Diego-based management advisory firm, surveyed 835 businessowners in early January on the value of social media tools.

Forty-one percent of respondents said LinkedIn was their firstchoice. YouTube was their second choice at 16% followed by 14% forFacebook.

Only 3% of the survey's respondents chose Twitter, according tothe survey.

In a Wall Street Journal article, some small business ownerscomplained that Twitter lacked ways to offer meaningful engagement,users on the channel have short attention spans and tend not to gothere to shop.

One business owner said of LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook andTwitter, LinkedIn has been the dominant traffic driver to hissite for the past two years. Another entrepreneur said Twitterdoesn't support images as effectively as Facebook andPinterest.

Twitter executives acknowledged that a small business ad servicelaunched nearly a year ago is still being tested among a certaingroup of clients.

According to the survey, four in 10 businesses said they haveemployees dedicated to social media campaigns with nearly half ofthem spending between one and five hours a week on social media andone-third not spending any time on the channels.

The Wall Street Journal/Vistage survey gatheredfeedback from businesses in a number of industries with less than$20 million in annual revenue.