Social media is the top digital marketing tactic/channel that small businesses plan to spend additional budget on in 2017, according to recent research from Infusionsoft.

The report was based on data from a survey of 1,000 small business owners from across the United States. Respondents were polled on their current and planned use of digital marketing.

Some 56% of respondents say they expect to spend more on social media this year than last year; 33% plan to spend more on digital advertising; and 32% plan to spend more on search engine optimization:

The most popular tactics in small businesses' digital marketing mix for 2017 are social media (70% plan to use it), email marketing (44%), digital advertising (42%), and search engine optimization (39%):

Facebook is the most popular social media platform with small business owners (72% of firms say they regularly use it for marketing purposes); Twitter is second (37%), followed by Instagram (33%) and LinkedIn (24%):

Some 69% of small businesses say they create content for social media; emails are the next most popular content type (43% of small businesses say they create email content), followed by blog posts/articles (34%):

About the research: The report was based on data from a survey of 1,000 small business owners from across the United States. Respondents were polled on digital marketing goals, tactics, and challenges for 2017.