The past presidential elections have shed new light on how the candidates communicate with the people they want to vote for them on Social Media. This election season has already proven to be no different. As the elections approach, the candidates will focus on their key issues and in this economy; one of the biggest will be creating jobs, particularly in the small business sector.

Who cares? Well for one, the candidates should care. Small business represents between 65% – 70% of the nations economy and the individuals who own and operate these small business are becoming increasingly wise to not only the importance social media can plan in promoting their business but in the importance social media can play in communicating their thoughts, ideas and beliefs around their circles of influence.

Radius, a company providing sales intelligence for the small business market, released a report ranking cities based on the social media usage of its small business owners.

San Francisco tops the list of places with the most socially connected small businesses, with Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., coming in second and third, respectively. Overall, West Coast cities ranked higher than those on the east coast, with New York coming in seventh and Boston not even making the top 20.

But some East Coast and Midwest cities are making strides to stand out on social media:

Grand Rapids, Mich., (29%) and Oklahoma, Okla., (28%) have the highest percentage of SMBs with Facebook pages.

Buffalo, N.Y. (20%) and Rochester, Minn., (20%) have the highest percentage of SMBs with Foursquare check-ins.

Radius monitors and collects information from more than 15 million small businesses in the U.S. and measure the activity of those businesses on major social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Yelp and daily deal activity.

It’s important for small businesses to utilize social media to engage with customers, develop higher awareness, identify and attract new customers, which can all directly impact the growth of their business, CEO and founder of Radius, Darian Shirazi tells Mashable. “Being on the social graph also allows for other companies to be more efficient when working with them, since they will better understand the business and be able to offer a wider variety of services.”

Check out the infographic below and let us know what you think in the comments.