Social networking's marketing advantage has been on the rise amongst small businesses in the United Kingdom, and in the last six months, the numbers of firms that use social networks to promote themselves has more than doubled, from 7 percent to 15 percent, SME Web reported Tuesday.

A British Telecommunications Group (BT) Tradespace survey found that social networks are most popular amongst start-up companies, with 22 percent of surveyed businesses using them. Meanwhile, 13 percent of home-based and 11 percent of growing firms employ the promotional tool.

Nearly a fourth of London firms use social networking sites for marketing purposes. In the South East and North West of the country, 19 percent of businesses use social networks. Meanwhile, only 8 percent of Scottish firms follow the trend.

Although most companies acknowledge the benefits of Internet-based marketing campaigns, only about 52 percent have their own Web sites and 22 percent “do no marketing at all,” SME Web reported.

BT recently launched BT Tradespace, which allows firms to have their personalised Web addresses permitting clients to look for products and services. BT Tradespace Chief Mick Hegarty said that while the number of firms who use such platforms to market themselves may be growing, a significant number may not be realising its full potential.

“Smaller companies do much of their business through relationships and referrals and professional networking enables them to play to their strengths whenever they interact with customers, suppliers and business partners,” said Hegarty, according to SME Web.

BT is a UK-based telecommunications operator that was privatised in 1984. In October this year, the regulator announced that its shares may be at their lowest ever, the Financial Times reported last week.