Smaller social networking sites offer benefits for local businesses

A small business' online options are not limited to social networking giants such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Many business owners are benefiting from building their own community pages.

A small business' page or feed can often get lost among the more than 500 million Facebook members and 100 million Twitter users. While a customer may "like" a business on Facebook, that does not mean it will automatically show up on his or her newsfeed, which only shows updates from the 250 friends and pages a user interacts with most.

Sites like Grouply and Ning offer small businesses a smaller and easier venue in which to connect with customers, investors and peers. For example, Grouply, a free service, allows entrepreneurs to create a webpage without requiring previous programming experience. Members will be able to add features such as a wall for comments, videos and a calendar.

These sites remain relatively small, thus amplifying each member's presence. Currently, Grouply has 1.4 million users. However, according to co-founder and CEO Mark Robins, it's been growing by 25 percent a month.

Fellow social networking site Ning announced earlier this year that beginning in late August, members would have to pay $2.35 per month for the service. According to an Econsultancy report, 45,000 users currentl pay for Ning.