A Citibank Small Business survey released last week found that 75% of entrepreneurs don’t use Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites to build their business. In analyzing the surprising results, an EVP of Citi’s Small Business unit suggested that entrepreneurs are ignoring social media because they are so busy “doing the things that are really important, especially in these economic times.”

With all due respect, we beg to differ. In a tough economy, nothing could be more important than exploiting the most cost-effective means of building a business. The starting cost for a social media campaign is exactly zero, and what could be more cost-effective than that?

Prost! Productions has been on Twitter for three weeks now, and we’ve already found a new artist, a new distributor, and even a new rep half a world away. We’re also in discussions with multiple wineries to create custom cards to sell in their tasting rooms. If even one of those deals pans out, it will pay for our $50 custom Twitter background many times over.

While all of this hardly makes us Twitter experts, it has turned us into Twitter enthusiasts, and we think more entrepreneurs would share our enthusiasm if they followed a few simple suggestions:

1. Define success. Know exactly what you hope to achieve, and judge your results accordingly. When you’re starting out, it’s easy to get caught up in the chase for followers, re-tweets and other meaningless metrics that don’t add a dime to your revenues. We started Tweeting with the goal of landing just one new retail account in our first month, so we think we’re successful — even though we have just 121 followers.
2. Define yourself. There’s nothing deceitful about maintaining multiple Twitter accounts — it’s just a way to keep your identity sharply defined. If you have multiple businesses, create multiple accounts so you’re not Tweeting about Tupperware to the folks who follow you for your health care expertise. Ditto personal interests: It’s great to reveal your personality online, but your business contacts don’t need to know every time the baby spits up.
3. Don’t chase numbers. We could have multiplied our follower count by many times, but what’s the point? With every new person we follow, we’re adding to the chatter in our Twitter stream, and making it that much harder to pick out the stuff that’s really important. If we want to establish meaningful relationships online, we have to screen out the meaningless ones.

The point is this: If you’re a small-business owner who’s still on the sidelines because you think social media are too self-involved or self-referential, just remember that it doesn’t have to be that way. Twitter, LinkedIn, FaceBook — they’re all just tools that can be used any way you want. And the fact that 75% of your competition is not using the tools? That just means more of a head start for you in building a successful businesss.