A new study by leading public relations and communications consultancy firm Burson-Marsteller shows that influential African-American consumers often use the Web for business purposes and favor offline interaction over social network sites.

African American-fluentials, the moniker for this influential group, are much more likely to make business contacts online (52 percent) compared to the total influential consumers in the U.S. population (28 percent).

Still, they are less active in social networking sites compared to the general population of online influencers. Instead, they speak to about 56 people daily or 40 percent more people than African American non-fluentials and 20 percent more than U.S. e-fluentials.

“African American-fluentials tend to embrace the Web for business and ‘serious’ pursuits while favoring a range of offline communications tools for social networking,” said Mireille Grangenois, Managing Director, U.S. Multicultural. “They are twice as likely to use handwritten notes than U.S. e-fluentials but half as likely to write blog entries.”

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