Book Research: Q1. What Social Media/Networks Work Best For You?

I'm in the process of writing a book for Pearson on best practices for monetizing social media as part of a company's holistic growth strategy. I'm interested in learning what works for your business. Thank-you sharing with me and many others the good things you have learned and accomplished.

Book Research Update:
- Thanks for everyone's support. There are over 120 comments in response to "What Social Media/Networks Work Best For You? Futher additions are welcome. See details below.
- Q2. New - What Works?  What Principles Have Helped You Make Money Directly Or Indirectly With Social Media/Networking? Not yet publicised: feel free to add your input.
- Q3. New - What Are Your Business Social Media/Networking Successes?

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Please share your views for "What Social Median/Networks Work Best For You" in the Comments section below. Thanks for your contribution. 

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you?

3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.

About Your Participation - This book will be an exciting venture in capturing testimonials and case studies from every day businesses and their social media/marketing success on how to get the best out of social media for businesses.

Should your information fit the context of the book, I'll be in touch with you to gather more information. Before any information can be approved by my editor for inclusion in the book I'll require a signed and faxed release form returned within 48 hours.

Should you have a question I will endeavour to reply to your response within 4 days or sooner. Presently I am in contact with hundreds of professionals as I am researching and writing the book and may be delayed while keeping up with the volume of activity.

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LinkedIn and Ecademy Responses
Note: Please contact individuals noted for permission to use their information in any other source not related to my research. All rights reserved (c) 2009.

Gabe Elliot - Yahoo Account Executive
1. I currently use Twitter, Linkedin, & blogs for business purpose.
2. Linked has been a great business network for me in terms of strategic partnerships and new business opportunities. Twitter has been a useful traffic driving tool.
3. I have definitley had some success with my social media. I manage accounts for clients on the Yahoo network and I have had a number of clients reach out to me through Linkedin and Twitter that are now using our services. I've also found Linked to be a great resource for finding contacts of companies that I'm attempting to reach.
I've found that Facebook has not been as relevant for me from a business standpoint but I will continue to test some new ideas.

William Buist - Director, Abelard Management Services Limited
1) I run the Societal Web Blog and have a wiki. and I'm active on Ecademy, Linked-in Plaxo, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Friendfeed and YouTube
2) I value Ecademy and Friendfeed, then Twitter, Linked in and Facebook and YouTube, then Plaxo. they are all valuable and have different audiences with different needs which I hope I address through targeted content. See this blog for details >>
3) Yes, by using Associates I'd built relationships with in BlackStar I was able to bid for and win contracts against big consultancy firms and deliver higher quality results.

Lucas Wyrsch - Entrepreneur, Connector, Networker, Consultant, Enterprise Risk Managing Adviser Swiss Business Club, TGC-Consultants, Future Power Generation Ltd., SwissNet, Inc., GTEM Ltd., Destination - Semmering, Inc. Zollikerberg, ZH Switzerland 
I ignore if there exists a Magic Quadrant, this proprietary research tool developed by Gartner Inc., a US based research and advisory firm, to answer your question is a very precise way.
As you may know, according to Gartner, the Magic Quadrant aims to provide a qualitative analysis into a market and its direction, maturity and participants, thus possibly enabling a company to be a stronger competitor for that market.
Their analyses are conducted for several specific technical industries and are updated every 1 - 2 years.
Coming to my evaluation without any scientific, empirical and statistical value, but only from my random hypothesis, I would classify the social networks and social media I use as follows:
1.Ecademy, the attention rate is very high
2.Twitter, has its magic as an early warning tool
3.Yasni, recently discovered thanks to Andreas Wiedow
4.Social|Median, it offers me such a great personalization for media coverage
5.FriendFeed is also very useful
6.Google Reader, is also a great social media tool
7.LinkedIn, still offers over 40 million of mostly corporate profiles with some good groups
8.XING, it helps me find contacts in the German language area
9.Plaxo, a bit limited as I cannot expand my contacts above a very restrictive number
10.Facebook, is really great to play a bit around at a rest
11.MySpave, is still a very crowded site
12.Orkut, to find mainly friends from India and Brasil
13.Viadeo, the French equivalent of XING
14.and many others
Why do I use Ecademy and why do I have over 35,000 connections?
I think that ecademy offers me more freedom and creativity than any other platform and that its attention rate is the highest of all.
In terms of Napoleon Hill, Ecademy would have the best "pre-existing conditions" to become or to be my favorite MASTERMIND group.

Heidi Titcenal - Independent Computer Networking Professional
1. I use industry specific bulletin boards.
2. The industry specific boards are best for me because that is where I network with others who have work and are performing similar work to my own in other communitities.
3. Yes.

Pamela Hilliard Owens - Writer, Editor, and Communications Consultant
I primarily use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, although I secondarily use Plurk. I also have my own blogs and websites.
All are valuable to me in different ways.
I have found customers through Twitter, references through LinkedIn, and a business partner and clients through Facebook.
The remaining paying customers/clients and strategice alliances have come from my other marketing efforts.
I am just recently really concentrating on using social networks for marketing efforts.

Adrian Maile - Head of Consulting Sales, Emerging Markets, EMEA at SAP
They each provide an 'angle' and offer value for different purposes. Facebook and Twitter for fans who care about what you are doing, Blogger for longer prose to be read, LinkedIn for establishing business related connections, Facebook for low cost high exposure advertising, LinkedIn groups for collective discussion. I for instance give exerpts from my new book to members of the Top Success Tips and it promotes feedback and discussion. For a publisher and author like me, the best business networking visibility is still gained through broadcast media and Amazon and other on-line stores internationally, and major national newspapers and magazines. Also nothing sells a book like having it in the shops and you don't get into the shops without public visibility via the new and older forms of networking.
Links: http://www.successful-bastards.com

Rahul Hukku - Regional Sales & Biz Dev Manager - Multimedia Solutions
1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?
RAHUL - I mostly use Linked IN foo biz & Facebook for personal reasons.However; recently i have observed more & more of my friends & office colleagues are moving on to facebook as well. Which of course is a great thing since now i dont have to log into different sites but just go to one.
2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you? Explain.
RAHUL - I will value LinkedIN since it allows me to network & at the same time find relevant jobs :)
3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.
RAHUL - Not really generated revenue yet , but helps to understand people better. Specially i focus on the status updates of the people in my network. If you watch closely it can really help you to understand the behavior pattern. Few years ago - this was considered "invasion of privacy" but not anymore ;)

Guy Siverson - Body By Chocolate Man
1. I use a combination of article marketing, social networking (40 different services with Twitter at the helm), my own blog interfaces and will be adding video services very soon.
2. Twitter. All the others are important and it is best to use a spoke wheel type combination which all points to the heart of what you are doing. However, without Twitter I would not be actively engaged in as many focused conversations as I currently am. Given that Twitter is now nearly 3 million accounts strong, its a place you want to be.
You've heard follow the flow of where people go? I would say, find out where people are headed and be there first. That is why I am in the top 1% of Twitter and have every plan in mind to remain there.
3. My business is based on Independent Distributors. Directly because of Twitter I have brought people onboard as part of the Body By Chocolate team. I also have several hot leads that I am tweeting with directly because of meeting them on Twitter.
However, the joint venture opportunities that I have already realized are far more important to me. I have people in Italy, UK & Europe that I never would have met without the help of Twitter. All of these different alliances are leading to potentially exciting opportunities and great conversations on how what was once considered good can now become greaat as a result of dialoging with each other.
The Body By Chocolate Man
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/BodyByChocolate
WEBSITE: http://www.bodybychocolates.com/xo/gs/endulge.htm

Niqueta A - Strategic Planner
1. There are different social networks for different purposes,each kind works in their chosen space for e.g. in professional space linkedin is preferred and in personal space facebook works best. There is clear bifurcation. However I am active on one preferred network in a particular category, cant afford to be active on two ,three or more networks of same kind,otherwise it gets too maintain activity.Like I am active on linkedin for professional use, will not be inclined to use other social networks like TooStep even though I may register. Like for personal space facebook works best , I am active on facebook and only facebook will ignore requests from other social networking sites like Yaari, Myspace, Bigaada etc...
2.Linkedin for professional purposes. Twitter works as a hybrid both for professional and personal. Twitter is equally appealing in both personal and professional space over linkedin and facebook for that matter.Youtube acts as a catalyst. Blogs also work.
3. These days I value Twitter the most.Blogs are also valuable but again twitter kind of integrates the blogs too. Yes social networks create good strategic alliances beyond geographical boundaries.

Yinka Akerela - Artistic Director at Bolyn
LinkedIn targets precisely the markets I want. MySpace is too impersonal.

Craig Murphy - VP Sales and Marketing at Sterling Laser Inc.
I use Facebook, LinkedIn and Plaxo and have for awhile. I have not noticed any increase in business because of these sites.

Benjamin Hebert - Social Networking Intern at Gift Card Rescue
Personally I've found that the most important thing of social networking is the use to develop relationships while not directly selling products or services. The best thing social networking can be used for is to promote a brand and create influence online that translates to real world results.
As far as monetizing goes I think that writing a book now might not be the best time as at the rate social networking is changing we are going to see adverse changes in the industry.
With advertising currently being a $500 billion dollar industry and online advertising being only $15 billion its about time the blue chip sponsors jumped on board. I think we're going to see a world of changes and it's overwhelmingly exciting.

Peter Tosto - Business Development Manager at TransWorldNews, Inc
I am one of the developers of YourFINDit which is a Social Business and Music Network. The nice thing about YourFINDit is it provides everything in one space for most members that are looking to network while at the same time looking to increase their web exposure through organic search results. YourFINDit also provides members with ways to advertise within their profile pages excluding any other ads from appearing. This application is known as ADit. Although YourFINDit is new it's membership is growing and we are opening our first open to the public YourFINDit store.

Brit Latamore - IT Report Writer From tweets and blogs to white papers and books: You provide the information; I craft the words.
You mean outside of LinkedIn? Facebook is good, but I use that more for personal connections with friends. Of course many of my clients and business contacts are also friends, so there is a lot of crossover. I also maintain a profile on Plaxo but haven't done much with that yet.
On the other hand, MySpace has been a washout for me so far. I don't seem to know many people on it, and I have pretty much stopped playing there for now.

Mark Amtower - Mentor to current and future Government Market Masters
LinkedIn by far is the most productive social media tool for me. It allows me to further establish a thought leadership position in my market niche with my profile and Q&A. expand my network through direct connections and groups, and attract paying clients.

Wendy Meyeroff - Custom Content for Healthcare/Mature Market
I like LinkedIn for two reasons. One, it's simply easier to use. I don't have to restrict to XXX number of characters or learn new symbols.
Secondly, when I want to reach family or friends--true "social" networking for me--I call or use their personal emails. I don't think I'd ever post some of the things I say personally via a network like Facebook. And I don't find the latter or Twitter much good for business.
I like the fact that LinkedIn gives me access to a much wider range of business expertise when I'm seeking the answer to a question, just as you've done here. Good luck with your writing!

Anil Pesaramelli - Senior Applications Engineer at Oracle USA
Linked in and facebook.

Rebecca Lisle - SEO Account Executive, SEO Strategist, SEO Consultant - Move YOUR WEBSITE to the front page of Google, Yahoo and MSN
Linked In by far. I dedicate about an hour each day (sometimes 30 minutes) to Social Networking. On linked in I participate in Discussions and Start Discussions....."giving" as much as possible. On Twitter, I have connected with others, read a lot of articles and had people connect to me.....but they are mostly people in my industry. I think it gives depth to your products & services when you have a contact in Linked In and they see that you are also on Twitter and Facebook. They are all relevant and interrelated. Thanks for the question. 

Rakesh Sud - ACA, Grad CWA ,DISA, Passed CISA/CISSP
Linkedin works best for me despite their customer unfriendly behavior.

Mike Boehler - Financial Representative at COUNTRY® Financial
1- Linked In
2- the only one I belong to
3- not a dime

Dr. Tom Boldrey - Founder QualityWorks Consulting Group and Senior Leadership Development Consultant 
1. I participate in blogs and forums on specific topics typically for a short period of time determined by the groups or pending my immediate need. I have become a devoted LinkedIn user in the past six months and have deliberately made the distinction of LinkedIn as the professional side and Facebook as personal and informal. The impetus of LinkedIn was in part due to international connections that I developed in Italy with others who were from Europe, Austrialia, and UAE.Prior to that it was only very sporadic. I have become disciplined in using LinkedIn every day and take advantage of the groups and organizations that are already recognized and some special ones some of us have created on as need basis.
2. Right now LinkedIn is the most value added professionally. There does seem to be an emerging use of facebook with a proessional/work slant. Within the past two months or so I am sensing a personal/professional blenging on FB. Since the world is all about relationships I see the value of Facebook although many of the young generation are using it a only for personal communications. I am still very concerned about privacy issues and believe that there is a hugh risk in communications transmitted over these networks. I believe these networks are very vulnerable to hackers. I have a few professional assocaites who will not use these networks because of the concern for identity theft. etc.
3. Yes, I have made new strategic alliances and to a limited extent increased my paying customer base. Some of that is in progress right now. The downward economic conditons are tinting what is happening so it is difficult to link only one cause and one effect to using social media.

Clifford Mwatela - Marketing and Advertising Proffesional
1. I use LinkedIn and Facebook.
2. LinkedIn works best for me proffessionally, I got my last two jobs through LinkedIn and have helped my firends and colleagues find opportunities through my connections and available opportunities.
3. My company website si still under construction, most of my business will come from the diaspora as such I shall use twitter and facebook I am certain that this will generate new subscribers.

Saar Herman - CEO at Global Content & Research Ltd.
1. The best success we had, by far, was with LinkedIn.
2. we are active in more than 12 different social media companies, including Ecademy, stumbleupon, digg, reditt, Mister-wong, twitter etc.
3. We do not really sell products or services, but we had an increase of over 200% of unique visitors to the site, which in return is money for us through ads. we also were able to make phenomenal business connections, to tap into multiple resources we otherwise had no way to do and got help from people all over the globe, many times for free or on a commission basis. For an example, I will take release the chicken, a PR agency we contacted through linked in, which was able to help us pitch our site on a commission basis with no cash output more than the paid consultant with the international resume and the huge monthly bills.

Gudmund Dvarsater - Member of the board at GuGu Holding AB
I don't have much experience within this field (social media) except Linked In and a number of groups like AvaMed, eMarketing Ass. Network etc. that I reach through Linked In. However, I believe strongly in viral marketing and that a recommendation from someone you know and respect is several times stronger than advertising or through net sites as FaceBook, Twitter etc. I don't think this sites are personal enough to have a major impact. Buzzador is probably one of the most effective marketing tools available when you want to introduce a new service or product.

Pamela Hilliard Owens - Writer, Editor, and Communications Consultant
I primarily use Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, although I secondarily use Plurk. I also have my own blogs and websites.
All are valuable to me in different ways.
I have found customers through Twitter, references through LinkedIn, and a business partner and clients through Facebook.
The remaining paying customers/clients and strategice alliances have come from my other marketing efforts.
I am just recently really concentrating on using social networks for marketing efforts.

Ronnie Menassa - Entrepreneur, leader and owner of yooneeq ltd
1. LinkedIn/ Twitter (@yooceo)/ Ecademy - I use facebook for friends and family and not for business.
2. LinkedIn/Twitter
3. Yes - through LinkedIn - it has been a valuable tool in getting to know the people behind the business and building good work relationships basedon reputation. 

Bruce Hoag, PhD, C.Psychol - Organizational Psychologist, Author, & Speaker. Two Sides of the Same Coin
I obtain a small amount of business as a result of networking on Ecademy, but it's still very early days. I don't think most people realize just how large their social networks need to be to produce the results they want; nor do they realize how often they need to communicate with them. It requires the same dedication and tenacity as any other marketing plan.

Kevin Hidenfelter - Regional Accounts Manager at Maxim Healthcare Services
1. The only social media that I use is LinkedIn. My wife uses Facebook.
2. The reason I use LinkedIn, is that it is a great tool for sales leads and recruitment leads.
3. I have secured relationships that lead to new business for my organization on LinkedIn as well as connecting with professionals that would be an asset to one of our customers.

Sally Croft  - Independent Market Research Professional
1. I prefer to use to Twitter, Facebook & LinkedIn.
2. Stumble Upon, Twitter & LinkedIn
3. Well I have developed a follow up of friends in different social networking sites. I have many followers who are my fans on multiple sites like twitter, facebook, stumble upon, linkedin etc.

Natasha V.- HR Expert.
1. I use LinkedIn, Too step, Facebook & Orkut.
2. I value LinkedIn the most. Its strictly professional.
3. Yes! I have. Nowadays portals are not of that great use, so finding people on these sites is easier and even middle & senior level professional participate actively on these sites. New Clients and Business development is also done through this site. i myself have managed to close a couple of positions through this site to achieve my targets.

Liviu Caliman - Entrepreneur, culture creative, transformational Innerpreneur.
I've joined LinkedIn towards the end of 2008 - the first (online) social network I've ever joined. It was, and is, a great and useful experience. This summer I've joined other networks, the last one being Facebook a couple of days ago. However, at the moment I'm not using them for the growth of a specific company; this will happen a bit later.

Lance Latham, MBA - Managing Partner and Lead Consultant, Metrilogics LLC
1. I only use Linked In.
2. I focus on using only Linked In because it's DESIGNED to be a business network. I'd prefer to deal with people on a BUSINESS level via this network instead of trying to make business contacts through SOCIAL networks - I'd have an ethical difficulty working through non-business network channels by trying to do business via Facebook, etc. I also focus on Linked In because I am making a conscious effort NOT to be hooked into too many networks - I've found that it's easy to get caught up in ONLY networking if you're "plugged into" too many places. I've quickly found myself just jockeying a keyboard and answering emails instead of doing what it takes to generate genuine business and revenue (have - fortunately - broken myself of that habit!)
3. Have had numerous conversations (conference calls, Linked In discussion group interaction, email exchanges, etc.) with fellow consultants and potential clients from all over the world. To date, Linked In has garnered me 2 face-to-face client presentation sessions, one of which resulted in a 3-month 6-figure billing project. Have also embarked on 2 partnering / referral agreements with other consultants as a result of them seeing my Linked In profile and reaching out to me to make the initial contact. To date, there's been no business revenue generated via the 2 consulting partnerships, but it's good to be "on their radar" for whenever the professional opportunities arise down the road. Am also connecting to people via Linked In to ensure that my network is apprised of some mobile phone apps that my business partner and I are looking to launch soon (1 in Sept. / Oct of this year and 1 in the 1st quarter of 2010). I want to be able to inform my network as soon as these apps are available, since we'll be offering pricing discounts following the initial launches, and I want my connections to benefit from both the apps and the limited-time savings.

Lise Lapierre - Owner, Amaravati Enterprises Inc
1. Linked In & Twitter, at the moment; formulating a strategy with my PR team, so this may change.
2. TBD
3. Just started to use the media, and my business is not officially launched yet. No new customers yet.
 
Bonnie Beddall - REALTOR, CDPE, Recruiter, Trainer, Mentor
1. My own blog (recently started), Linked In, Twitter, facebook, ecademy, my own Ning social network for my agents.
2. LinkedIn, twitter, facebook.
3. Not yet.

Vikas Maini - Cheif Operating Officer at iNext360°
1. Linkedin
2. Linkedin
3. Not yet but five of them in process, I generally seek expertise & business association from my connections.

Charmy Zalawadia - Student at University of Newcastle
The professional network I use is linkedin. It is the best network as it connects you globally and share a knowledge, experience with thousands and thousands people. Also the features like discussion, news, jobs boards helps once a lot to share and get more information. I heard the same about the twitter but I am not member of that network.
Facebook, forums, wiki and other such network becomes more of the fun and social kind of sites then professional. It just provide one with the individual or particular information then having a common and global as well as day-to-day information.

Gary Stockton - Sr. eBusiness Manager at CMS Products
1. Linked In, Facebook, Twitter (soon to add Wordpress)
2. Twitter
3. Too soon to tell, but my general sense is that it is a good lead generation tool if used in the right way.

Saskia Wijngaard - Owner, Everything 4 Seniors
1. Google "saskia wijngaard" and you will find 334 hits to my name. All of this hits are the social medias that I am on.
2. I value and enjoy Linked in the most. In fact when I hire a new employee the first thing I get them to do is link in. Its a great resource. If my staff doesn't know the answer they put it out for discussion and voila more answers then they know what to do with. The people on Linked in are professional and great sources of ideas.
3. Linked in has been the beginning of most of my best business. Craig's list was great for finding employees.

Chris Wilde - Website Analyst, Business Social Marketing
1. I use a lot of blogs for news and work related skills and interest. I have a few Twitter accounts I use to give out info and then bulk up links to my websites. I joined LinkedIn awhile back and then ignored until recently. I'm now moving and looking for job references and new work-related peers.
2. LinkedIn, StumbleUpon
3. I have not got a lot of quantity of response from Social networking. But what I did get was very valuable.

Jim Kopas - Associate Pring Turner Capital Group
1. Social Media for business purposes: Currenlty our firm is not using any of these networks to market our products, however we are looking into using Linked In and Twitter to start marketing our webinars.
2. Personally I value Linked In and twitter the most as I have found those to be the best for business networking purposes. However I also use facebook to catch up with personal friends, so I also value that network.
3. I hope the answer to this question will be yes in the next year. Pring Turner Capital has had great performance figures compared to the market over the last decade, and we hope to promote our performance over social networks in the future.

Pam Temple - New Construction Consultant at Ashford Homes, Network Expert at Ideal Health
1. I use LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook
2. Facebook is best for social networking. LinkedIn is by far the superior professional networking site. I have been able to expand my business nationally in a matter of weeks, rather than months...or possibly even years.
3. I use LinkedIn for two separate businesses. I have forged several strategic alliances, and have realized interest in my to-be-built homes, and I have actually signed two people via LinkedIn to join me in my networking business. This has all happened within the last month.

James Brown - Copywriter, "LION,"web copywriter, marketing
I started on social media about three weeks ago. I'm using LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Ecademy. I've got tons of contacts in LinkendIn but no requests for my service. Lots of people looking at my profile. I have 800 contacts on Twitter and just signed for a 3 part job with someone who emailed me. She has six websites and if all goes well, which of course it will, she will likely become a long term customer.

E.G. Sebastian - Author, Speaker, Leadership Development Coach
1) Facebook - I'm mostly feel lost on facebook - too much games and light socializing amongst people I don't know. I don't know if I can just barge in with a comment on those social interractions, or would that be considered rude...
I also see some poeople beautifully promoting their seminars, teleclasses, workshops, etc.; and I just never got a hang of it. I do teleclasses as well and it'd be really great to promote it to my "friends." Which brings up another issue.
Some of my "friends" have 60,000 followers - I have 58; what's up with that? :) What could I do to get more followers?
Twitter - I have close to 2000 followers... what do I do with all those comments? And sometimes I DM some of the followers and by the time they answer me back, I have no idea what the heck are they talking about.... Is there a way to go back and check on what I sent them...? It's confusing. I read somewhere that you are using Twitter correctly if you have a lot of @username and dm username all over you page... Well, I must suck, 'cause my page hase very few of those (has some - but very few)
eCademy.com - I get a bunch of offers... it's like everyone wants me to join their groups or try to sell me something... I'm already a member in way too many groups... So I'm pretty much lost on eCademy as well.
And I'm on about 30 other social networks - you name it, I'm there. None of them really work for me, because I'm not working them.
2) LinkedIn works for me. Why? I guess because of the groups they have and because of my passion for the topics in those groups. I made many connections through posting in those groups and starting many discussions. (I also started three of my own groups).
Many of the business connections that I know face-to-face are also on linked-in and wrote several recomendations for me... Linked in turned out to me to be addictive. I can spend hours in the groups answering people's challenges or business-related questions... or reading great articles posted by members - articles that directly relate to one of the topics of my interest (public speaking, conflict management, DiSC Behavioral Model, Event Planning, etc.)
Ever since I'm on LinkedIn, my opt-in subscription rate more than trippled. This year I went from 3000 subscribers to close to 5000 opt-in subscribers - which for some it might not seem like a large number, but to me it is super great :)
3) I did not understand any of the social media - I didn't have the faintest idea why I should get involved in any of them, and I resisted for quite some time to get involved in it. If it hasn't been for Tom Antion - my mentor - I would have probably not gotten involved in social media for another year or two... I was just way too bussy creating products, doing teleclasses, doing live seminars, etc.
4) What specific things did you do to generate a quality following? I try to provide value. When I
answer a question, I try to give specific steps or even refer them to one of my many articles (that explain things step-by-step). I also try to post engaging questions. One of my questions, for example - related to "leadership" - generated dozens of answers and the discussion stretched out for weeks...

Andreas Wiedow - Keynote Speaker, Telefontraining,Telefontraining Call Center
1) bebo | delicious | Digg | ecademy | facebook | friendfeed | friendster | LastFM | LinkedIn | MySpace | Naymz | Plaxo | Plazes | Propeller | Ryze | Slashdot | Spock | stumbleupon | technorati | Twitter arow | Twitter telefontraining | Blog auf wiedow sehen | Blog Besserungsanstalt | Blog ergo wiedow auf yasni | yasni
2) Those I'm pro-active at. My website, blogs, ecademy, InterNations, yasni.
3) Yes. No time to explain, client - resulting from that - about to arrive for an interview

Binh Zientek - Accommodation Specialist, Quality London Apartments.co.uk
1) I am on Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, UK Business labs, fastpitchnetworking, own blog.
2) Ecademy is very vibrant, I have found suppliers and have found business on here. UK Business Labs because it is a smaller forum and business discussions are very interesting.
3) Yes, Ecademy has provided me with suppliers and clients as well.

Mark Ballantyne - Eagle Imagery
1) As a fair few of you will be aware, I'm a member of what must be well over 180 business networks wordlwide, the majority being UK-based. I've noticed a distinctly worrying trend in recent years of networks trying to be too flashy; with a myriad gadgets, widgets and whizz-bangs. It's all too complicated - especially for businesses new to the net and trying to raise their profile. In all honesty, Ecademy has become such a monster. It's all too complex. Not complicated; but complex. A networking platform doesn't have to be complex to be effective.
I'm a great believer in business forums and have been using them to great effect for many years. I (or should I say, we) now run one of the 'big three' in the UK: UK Business Labs (see sig). This uses 'vBulletin' software which is the global defacto standard; tens of millions of people use it so there are few learning-curve issues.
Others include UKBF, A1, Teneric, Shell LiveWIRE, MYBF and dozens of others. They're simple and they work because they use a tried and tested networking format: discussion and interaction - the referrals come naturally.
Twitter, LinkedIn, BTTradespace I use too (plus too many others to name here) but to not so great effect.
2) In recent years it was UKBF but it's been (almost) overrun by spammers now and the signal to noise ratio is, well... noisy! The important thing is to spread yourself around and not get blinkered or starry-eyed by a single network. Some people's blind devotion to a single network is quite staggering! What if that network goes down?
3) I generated a fair bit of business here in recent years - a lot was from personal referrals - but that's died a grizzly death. I think Ecademy is now attracting people with a certain, singular, 'hey, look at me' mindset. It's almost unbearable to watch, given that the place (still?) has so much potential. The 'quantity over quality' thing is truly disturbing too - Ecademy has gone all-out against its original ethos.
For me, it always has and probably always will be; business forums. Networking and brand-building on them is so much easier - there are fewer places to get lost in the noise for one! Word-of-mouth referrals are plentiful if you interact and brand yourself well. Simplicity is the key to effective networking.

Gordon Wheaton - PR Consultant, Media Relations, Press Releases, Event Organizer.
The Social media that I am on: Ecademy, friendfeed, Twitter, Linked In, Plaxo, Business Scene, Network to Connect, Facebook My Space, Bebo, I do my own blog, but only occasionally.
In terms of work I use Ecademy. Most of my clients come from here. I also use Twitter. I also have started to recently use Facebook.

David Sirbasku - Signe BioPharma Inc,
1) I use Ecademy for European Contacts (and some U.S.) and LinkedIn for U.S. and North and South America. This seems to be a useful pattern. For my political activities, I use Twitter. Can communicate with those that can influence U.S. domestic and foreign policy. The Twitter format especially lends itself to this acitivity. FriendFeed works into another Twitter access for me. Not my first point of entry.
2) There is no one best! Each NetWork is used to a purpose and has strenghts not as apparent as in others. Ecademy has vast strength in its leadership and in the activities of its diverse membership. Ecademy leads by far in its Educational Component. The Blogs and Communications from Leaders and Members are superior and not found at other sites. I greatly value Ecademy for these qualities. Twitter also leads in its category because it's immediate - or nearly so. Fast reactions to issues are found here. Also, has great links that teach many valuable lessons and provide a basis for evaluation of complex business issues. Indeed, in these aspects, LinkedIn is far less effective than Ecademy or Twitter. LinkedIn may be coming to a need to revise its format.
3) Not applicable.

Jolene Phillips - Creditsafe Business Solutions Ltd
1) Ecademy, Linkedin, A1businessforums, 4networking, meetnlink.
2) 1buisness forums as your queries get ansered straight away and its more of a chat site than "letmesellyoumyservices" site
3) None, not a flicker, suffice to say, I have been using social media for business networking for less than a month now. I believe that stick at it, and it'll eventually come in. It all takes time. I want to make presence known so when people think they need a certain service, that I will spring to mind as I'd been talking to them and helping them previous. Its about potential future revenue prospects.

Neil Warren - Publisher & Database Proprietor ModernSelling.com & Sales Direction Database
1) Our own site and forum, obviously. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, BT Tradespace (we embed bits of YouTube but don't have a profile), and personally Ecademy, Plaxo, Xing, Viadeo and there might be one or two more.
2) This is changing as things evolve, but LinkedIn has been good (having worked round their new "action bar" retaining frame), Twitter might well take off, particularly when we get that Tweetmeme jobby installed, and Ecademy has been attracting my attention a lot recently - it's down to having relevant content guys! Facebook feels like it ought to have a lot of potential, given their big numbers, but again relevance and content is king.
3) Not chasing paying customers, as explained, but if my estimate that something like 97% of the sales profession are NOT currently involved in regularly talking to their customers and prospects online, then I anticipate dramatically increasing fortunes (and glory!) as we guide a proportion of them into this scary new world.

John Cassidy - Photography, Inspiring Confidence through Personality
1) The social networks I use for business are the usual suspects, ecademy, Linked In, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, Xing, & Business Scene. I also have a blog attached to my website?
2) I value ecademy and twitter the most followed by linked in. ecademy because there is a good sense of community and there are lots of people sharing valuable information. Twitter is quick and easy I belong to a few groups on linked in but don't really do much on the others. Business Scene has good physical networking meetings
3) I have you generated new paying customers from social media by creating a presence and being active. I also have followers on twitter that I have never personally met who recommend me to others resulting in paying commissions.

Andrei Bittencourt - Director, Renderarts Studios
1) I use Ecademy, YouTube, Orkut, my blog, 3D forums, CG Society because they help to show for an especific public in my segment what i can provide.
2) The 3D forums, because the public is extremely segmented, they see the images posted there and the comments of professionals and students that help the costumers to have a better oppinion about the quality of the job, and who can help him providing what he is looking for.
3) Yes, i already made strategic alliances is extremely important to maintain flow of new jobs and costumers, but in my case especifIcally (video and animation for advertisement), some new costumers frequently are recommended by the agencies, and , in a right way, when you offer marketing strategy for a costumer you are competing for the same "spot" that the agencies are placed. So, when new costumers come for my company and ask for me for provide a complete campain for them, i ask if they have their own marketing sector ou if they are linked with any agency, because we want be ethic. This is very common in advertisement media.

Carson Jones - Director, Carson Jones
1) Ecademy, LinkedIn and Twitter
2) Early days for me but at present I use them all for different reasons and markets (for example ecademy I want to find partnerships and business but Twitter I use more for end-users). My intention is not to spread myself too thinly because updating and keeping things fresh all take time so would rather do a better job with fewer accounts. You could spend all day just trying to keep on top of a large number of them. The biggest turnoff for me is the fact some become pure information overload without any real thought (Scatter gun approach). This makes it difficult and easy to miss someone who you could actually be of great help to.
3) Too early to decide but I am hopeful that all of this will come from taking an open approach and not doing the hard sell which I cannnot stand i.e Carson THE STRATEGIC OUTSOURCER Jones! (First and last time I do that by the way!)

Malcolm Simpson - Practice Principal, Ashley Law Cotswold
1) Ecademy, LinkedIn & Twitter todate. Am currently waiting on compliance approval before posting a blog.
2) Value all three but still relatively inexperienced in all three. Been with Ecademy longest but on the lowest run of the ladder so slowly building. I have not been proactive yet on linkedin but have re-established contact with an old work colleague. Love twitter but still learning and have so many things to get good at.
3) Not yet but expectation runs high.

Anatoli Graour - Jeweler/Designer, jewellerpro.com
In my opinion Social Networks is good for communication and sharing purposes only.I could never make any business there because most of the people in Social Networks have no clue how the Internet business work or simply can not afford have they own business.
The result is that everybody trying to sell each other somebody-else business or recruit in MLM. I had a hard experience over three years which I described in my blog: Three Years Of Horror.
Recently I publish a book, Goldsmith Apprentice and I had no one visitor to my website from all Social Networks I belong to and that's about 15 of them. Now that I have my own business I consider to cancel most of my memberships.

Mehul Patel - Founder / CEO, Founder / www.KIPL.Net - New Media, Co-Founder - Mozomo - Designer Mobile Content
I do believe the days of one solution fits all are over. The key is to do exactly that suits you or your firm the most, however in general my list below does work for most firms especially when they are starting up or lkng for a major Buzz creation within no time and some respect on Google.
For a specific achievement working on a unique innovative custom designed strategy is very important and it's very crucial to remember your end goal, focus on Quality and not just quantity and keep your TG in the center of head all the time.
If you use them effectively chances are you don't need a Social Media Consultant (Or shall I say so called Guru's!) Go thru all of them one by one, create a common identity on each of them, post content which is current and relevant for your Business today, post your website and Blog links, just try this to start with and see your visibility factor skyrocket within weeks!
Of course there are Zillion more intelligent things to do, but this is a great start. I strongly believe for each customer, brand, firm the online marketing strategy must be totally unique and fresh and focused completely on what client wants to achieve the end goal, period!
Don't get carried away with online Jargons and too many things you could get lost in, relax, breath well and drink lots of water .
Following are some of my all time Fav. and most effective Social Media Marketing Websites and tools.
Blip.tv, del.icio.us, Dopplr, Facebook, Flickr, FriendFeed, Google Reader, hulu, Library Thing, Lijit, LinkedIn, MyBlogLog, Reddit, Shelfari, SlideShare, StumbleUpon, Technorati, Twine, twitter, upcoming Utterz.
If you use them effectively chances are you don't need a Social Media Consultant, Go thru some of them one by one, create your identity on each of them, post content which is current and relevant for your Business today, post your website and Blog links.

Solveig McCormick - YourOnLinePA
1) I started with Ecademy and graduated to LinkedIn. I am also loosely participating in Plaxo and occasionally facebook and Xing.
2) Ecademy is most pleasantly social but I prefer LinkedIn because of the active paricipation by my colleagues there.
3) Yes I have made contacts online that have resulted in business propositions. More importantly I have enjoyed the learning opportunities from group discussions and selected blogs.However nothing beats regular, committed face to face contact for creating business. It is way ahead of online networking.

Ruth Thirtle - Success Coach & Trainer, Your Abundance Now
1) My own blog, Ecademy, Facebook and Twiiter mainly. I use LinkedIn and You Tube to a lesser extent but probably should do more.
2) Ecademy and FaceBook are both very valuable to me. I value the diversity of contacts: maybe the hardest thing to reconcile is that sitting at my laptop and making contact (and friends) with all sorts of interesting people all over the world is actually work!!
3) This is quite new to me but I am following up with some people and I know that the answer to this will be a huge resounding yes over the next 12 months. I have been able to generate revenue through affiliate products so far and will be making money from my own products and services soon.

Chris Hobgood - Consultant, CommCore Hosted IP Solutions
In regards to Social Media some are better than others, I have found for me that Ecademy I have gained a substantial amount of connections but they do not help me in business as of yet, do to the fact that they are focused primarily in the overseas market and I am in the U.S. market. It is great learning from them and talking with them and getting their knowledge and Ideals on different items.
As for Linkedin it has really help our business brought us quality Resellers and created revenue in our market with some quality companies across the U.S., we are achieving quality contacts not quantity from Linkedin not saying that Ecademy is not quality it is just geographically different. Linkedin is primarily an American based group and gives us that as a focus group we share the same Ideals and thoughts but not the same knowledge sometimes it is great to get knowledge from overseas it gives you different aspects of the same question.
I have tried Facebook and have a page and find that it is more for Personal items than for Business so I try and stay away, I also have a Ning page and it does not drive the traffic Ecademy or Linkedin.
Twitter has been great we get our services out, changes to our partners in the field and they can see what we are doing as soon as we do them. We have not made new money as of yet but it has only been a short while as of yet since we have gotten on twitter. We feel that Social Media for Advertising is one of the greatest and most cost effective ways to get any company out their.

Dr N Bhashyam
1) I am retired and use media developing contacts and knowing the latest developments.
2) I have no comments.For me all are same.
3) No.

Job Folbert - Consultant, The House Of Business
1) Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube: and more plus our very own mini-network: The House Of Business! Interestingly one of the reasons for me to initiate this network is to serve the purpose of finding out some of the same questions you are posing here. Members on the network are all very active networkers and together we discover networking sites and find different complementary features. It's an experimental approach so to say to similar questions.
2) I think at the moment I like social media that allow you to merge in other social media and data streams and applications. Plaxo, eCademy, LinkedIn and Xing are all experimenting with this in productive ways. I think though that democritization of media will go on to more and more autonomy for social media users in the sense that their accounts will be customizable to the point that they are in fact mini-networks such as my own (The House Of Business).
3) Controlling ones own (semi-) autonomous network or very customizable account allows for more control over the information and features geared towards sales or forging of business relationships. It has provided me with a relatively large group of associates in a short period of time.

John Seaman - Managing Director, Smartsoft Computing
I use Ecademy, LinkedIn and Facebook. Ecademy I find is good for social networking. Facebook is good for being able to keep an eye on what everyone is doing and LinkedIn used to be rather staid but is now starting to come alive.
Haven't had much business result from any of them, yet.

Alan Bowman - Show Coordinator, Plant And Waste Recycling Show
Without a doubt it is Ecademy followed by Twitter for me and that is due to the attention span of those on them as stated by Lucas Wyrch who has the capacity to analyse and teach many things.
See You Tube search PAWRS 2009 and we had many visitors thanks to Ecademy profile and Twitter tweets from my team and also Facebook by the Team but for me it was and will forever be Ecademy which will become the Humanity Network.

Annette Hennekens  - Entrepreneur, Utopia Unlimited
LinkedIn, Facebook, Eacdemy and Twitter have worked great for me. There are many others, however these are where I am finding it's possible to make a real connection with real people.
Just the other day I posted a link on LinkedIn and was delighted to discover my blog linked within another person's blog. I love it!
http://www.interfaithspiritquest.com/2009/08/thinking-feeling-doing.html
It's amazing the people you can meet through these wonderful social mediums.

Emma James - Sports and Remedial Massage Therapist
1) LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter, UK Business Labs, Business Scene, WeCanDoBiz.com, Local Mouth, Google, Naymz, Plaxo, Fastpitch, Netlog
2) LinkedIn for linking to the corporate cats and keeping tabs on/with my contacts and high flying friends.
Ecademy for both the social and business aspect. Vast resource of advice/information and potential business/collaborations.
Twitter, Therapy Suite - to connect with fellow health professionals and source new articles which are of interest from my network and wider network via their re-tweets
Uk Business Labs, wonderful friendly forum with a sharp business focus, very friendly community.
Business Scene is a marvellous source for local information because it's broken down by region and provides a great vehicle for marketing any courses etc you might be running in the locality. Strong on competitions/regular meet ups.
WeCanDoBiz pride themselves on their supplier/purchaser testimonials. I'm only just beginning to leverage WCDB but they're friendly and proactive and Tweet out their members business requests which is a useful facility - I sent a response to one business request earlier today.
Local Mouth; useful site which enables you to market/advertise events on a local basis.
3) Yes, directly in the form of new occassional/regular clients and indirectly in the shape of bookings as a consequence of my web presence through random enquiries. Putting myself on Google maps has made a striking difference to my locability.
Strategic alliances - yes but I've not actively leveraged this aspect of my social media activities due to focusing on biz/family/house - plenty of irons in the fire though.

Dr. Mehmet Yildiz - Executive IT Architect, IBM
Needless to say Ecademy since I am blogging here working for me as an interactive global learning environment: IBM, IT Philosophy, Future, Leadership, My blog, Twitter, Linkedin, Yasni, Google, Naymz.

Nate Badii - GM, Cross Business Program Management, Culture, Performance and Leadership by NBSE, LLC
1) Ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, ezine articles, Ning
2) Linked in for linking to the corporate friends and keeping tabs on/with my contacts.
3) Not yet. Nate Badii

Nayanika R - Counselor, Freelancer available on call or on contract basis
1) I run the Social Web blog on Google and use the SEO. I am active on Eacademy and through it to Twitter and talk IM through skype.
2) I value my time and the correspondence on Eacademy and skype.I wait and follow up when I am contacted to make these forays. I also comment on health, wellness and issues relating to affiliated topics and field them. Surfing and adding content takes up a lot of time since my product is futuristic and deals entirely with Medicine from the factory-Body, how more Natural can we get!!! My product is sourced from Stem Cells.
3) I found my sponsor on Eacademy. Karen and I talk and work out strategies for stemEnhance. A lot of ground has to be covered via product feed, since stem cells are life giving cells produced by the body in bone marrow and can also be taken from the placenta , after child birth from gynecology and obstetrics departments in the Hospitals. It has been hailed and snapped in Malaysia as a Miracle and a Marvel.
I love Eacademy and take all my forays with this site very seriously.
Social Networking, Connections, and all possible outreaches are paramount. It is extremely timely to be there to give a hand or make the necessary bridges to bring denizens ashore to a semblance of comfort and be with their livelihood. Collectivization and a sense of provocativeness is the need of the hour.

Sadie Murray - Independent Marketing Executive
1) I'm very active on Ecademy, Linked-in, Facebook, Twitter; and participate on Plaxo, and a few others including Friendfeed and Fast Pitch. I have a Wiki with one of my Local Networking Groups..and I use it as my GojiHive.
2) I get "fed" differently by each and of the 4 that I use most often, it's like having your protein and vegetables from one store/market; water, fiber (beans, cereal etc) from another...and sometimes go to the bakery for a little bit of "sweet". Other times you just want to play in the sandbox (like taking in a movie) - not every day, but it also feeds you.
3) Yes. I get referrals and people just go to my e-commerce website or skype me to try the product. I have received customers and/or business partners from Facebook, Ecademy, Skype and Fast Pitch and am making wonderful connections. To share a recent story. I received a note on Skype from an admin of someone who is on Ecademy and said she recognized me from Ecademy and that her employer had told her to "accommodate her colleagues in the Ecademy network as it is the 'culture' in that group". What a wonderful endorsement.

Dr. Krishna Kumari Challa - kkartfromscience.com
I am a member of more than 500 networks. I am a network creator myself. My network works best for me because it makes my gray cells work more! I love intellectual stimulation (I don't bother about business much). Yes, some of the networks are really good in providing this. I prefer the ones that are good at making me think, think, think & think.

Alexis Wilke - CEO, Made to Order Software Corp
1) Many... actually, social media started with Forums and "simple" blogs where you could communicate, not as effectively as the newest systems, but still very similar. Posting about your product on some one else blog has great value, especially for products like those I do sell (software).
2) Some are more fun or easier to use. But so far I've got returns from all the different systems. So I think that you need them all if you want to get as much return as you can get.
3) Yes. So far, not large business, but many little one, which could be considered similar . And it is growing. All posts generate a little bit. That's quite interesting. That's like being in all the newspapers by for a minimal cost.

Daniel Diao - HR Supervisor, A Casting Company
1) In China, as a Chinese ,we like youku, ku6,etc for social media and we like taobao for business purposes.
2) Different kind of networks and media has it's special value and try different one we get something sepcial.
3) We try to get more active reaction from our friends an d their friends and it works.

Aron Stevenson - Account Manager, Leasing Options Ltd
1) Although I have profiles on various other platforms, I'm most active here on ecademy and I use it as a hub to generate content that I feed into twitter, friend feed, Triiibes, linkedin, Yasni, Plaxo, facebook, SocialMedian, etc.etc. I also use Your Business Channel which delivers great content and is an excellent business resource.
2) I value ecademy, Triiibes, twitter, friend feed, youtube, Your Business Channel, linkedin & facebook - Why? Because they deliver content that is useful/important to me and allow me to comment openly and share/spread ideas.
3) Directly Yes - I have generated some business from ecademy & twitter. Although, as I'm an employee of Leasing Options It's actually quite difficult to measure, unless enquiries are handled directly by me. I'm looking forward to working closer with my network and developing mutually beneficial relationships.
Indirectly - each of these platforms rank well with google and just as I search for information on a client, I have no doubt that my customers are searching me out. I feel it is more important than ever to be authentic, visible and an active part of a community . These are just a few of the reasons I joined ecademy, became a blackstar and why I've invested time learning about social media.

Dr. Salim Qureshi - Bloomsburg University
At the outset I must admit I am a Professor of Marketing and not a businessman on any social Media Networks. I have joined Ecademy purely for intellectual curiosity and found that people here are most fantastic, extremely friendly, open minded and open hearted to anyone who needs help. The people who run this media are philosophically profound and they all possess service mentality rather than bureacratic mentality. I have roamed around couple of other social Networks but it is my firm opinion that Ecademy possess a distinct competency in its management team. I see other social media/Networks as "Me Too" type of organizations with little Management Orientation.
The worldy people will of course try to measure and use profitability as an indicator of quality of a Social Nettwork. But that is just a quantitative indicator. As long as Mrs Penny Power, Mr. Thomas Power, and Mr. William Buist are running the show at the Ecademy, no other social Network can outperform The Ecademy.

Maria del Pilar Diez Calderon - Artist, Independent Distributor, Accountant
I work on Ecademy, twitter, facebook, plaxo, linkedin, all of them are excellent ways of business networking, with twitterfeed and ping.fm I have connected my status one another, also with Internations, fastpitch, unyk, spock, konnects, neo. org, and badoo all of them for business purposes. My first paying customer is still to be generated. Ecademy business networking events are of high quality.

Terrence Olson - Senior Level Executive/Manager, USSOCOM Resident Office /COE
What I'm seeing today is a crossing of lines that has basically got business wrapped into a place it really compromises the integrity of people at times and promotes more of a "I'll do you a favor" mentality. I personally find it insulting when people establish a "social" environment and then try to pick the bones, because they prey upon good intentions, and the nature of some human beings to accept any and all attention. Business done in social circles, puts it back to the good ole boy network, which doesn't mean the best for the situation, just best for those involved. It's why the USA got into the position they did/have with Wall street and banking, and made the effort of capitalism look like the joke it is. If you take and take from the upswing and profit, and put nothing back into the system to regenerate what has gone, your left with no bones to pick..everyone starves because of the greed and working the system of a few. If they actually rewarded hard work and effort; social networking wouldn't be full of people wanting you to "invest" your money, they would just want your friendship, and time. If the mirror is cracked what reflection do you see?..Is this a cynical and cold way of looking at things?..Not in the least, it's just reality and we applaud it and think nothing of it anymore.

Eko Subagio - Entrepreneur
Social network is the part of campaign and stay in touch, and part of local entrepreneur club to stay in touch, i am using LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, It will difinitely always make correction from what would we do. and have fun to stay connected with friends.

Philip Calvert - Founder of IFA Life and Social Media Marketing Speaker
1) IFA Life - a niche social network for financial planners and IFAs, LinkedIn, Ecademy, Twitter
2) IFA Life - because it exactly meets my target market
3) I have sold significant quantities of my book and seminar tickets via Ecademy, plus consultancy, advertising and speaking revenue via IFA Life.

Sanjay Pitroda - Business Analyst / Franchise operation, Sevenrings International Ltd.
I think the social media should involve the message of Purity of Friendship & Love among all people.

Jim Johnson - Teacher, Boys Basketball Coach, Inspirational Speaker, Greece Central School District
I am in the beginning stage of social media and presently on Ecademy. I believe it has a lot of potential for my business. Presently, I have not done it long enough to answer your questions.

Mark Fletcher - Interior Designer, designs by mark
1) Ecademy, LinkedIn, Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook
Although I've been up and running (networking) for some months now I'm still trying to get to grips with the whole online networking process. Although I see the benefits in joining many networks. I don't want to get drowned in a sea of information, blogs and posts Time will only tell which networks become of true value.
2) I'm still assessing this big time. As I've said with a bit of time and more interaction from myself, this should soon become apparent.
3) I can only hope.

Ela ErozanGursel - Business Columnist
1) Linkedin, Facebook for networking; Youtube and Twitter for researching global business trends to write weekly articles.
2) Linkedin is the best professional social network where people cooperate and interact effectively. I get questions answered from experts, read innovative ideas from discussions, and directly reach professionals who are in charge. Twitter is very effective in reaching up-to-date information on any given subject. For example, I wrote an article on nanotechnology based on the news articles posted in twitter.
3) I strongly rely on social media for research and information gathering as a business columnist. Social media makes my job easier through access to experts in many fields, networking opportunity worldwide in multiple languages (I am from Turkey but live in Singapore and speak Turkish, French, Spanish and English) and project based opportunities that are exclusively available to the network. I see a lot of potential in finding new career opportunities, project based assignments and even business partners through professional social networks.

Suzanne Bowen - Vice President, Super Technologies, Inc
What is ideal in each for business development? Linkedin's recommendations. Facebook's facilitation of natural interaction and quick review of everyone in our network, real time saver. Twitter's follower, #, @, and RT features... time saver. YouTube, Viddler, Qik and podcasts tools for showcasing your own products, your clients and suppliers' products, interviews of interesting personalities, and demos of how to do anything.
Our company incorporated in 1999. We didn't start using "social media and networking online as we know now it" until 2006. Our revenue has doubled three times since then. Our client turn-over is much less. We tend to keep clients and suppliers because of the caring of our customer service, the constant striving to offer something better than before, but also because we use social media and networking to keep people in the know, drive content worth reading and listening to, encourage participation in conferences for face to face bonding and such. I'll be speaking on this topic at ITEXPO West sometime Sept 1-3, 2009 in Los Angeles.

Aaron Hoos, MBA - Business writer and strategist | Creator of the Business Diamond Framework(TM) | Co-founder of BusinessLunchClub
1) I use LinkedIn, Twitter, and my own blog as the primary social media/social marketing channels (although I try to stay stay on top of the other popular ones for clients who prefer to use those).
2) Of the 3 I've mentioned, I value each one equally, but for different reasons:
* On LinkedIn, I've been able to connect with other professionals. I use LinkedIn for strategic alliances, to cement my relationship with new and existing clients, and as my "go-to" place for expertise in specific areas of business.
* On Twitter, I tend to use it less as a microblog (although I do use it as such), but prefer to use Twitter Search as a real time crowd-sourced search engine; as well, I use the Twitter-based networking platform Business Lunch Club (http://businesslunchclub.com), which turns Twitter into a place where professionals can network while they're at their desks.
* And my blog is my primary business site.
3) I have indeed generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customers, AND strategic alliances because of social media. But what I've found is that none of my marketing efforts exist in a vacuum -- people find me through one marketing channel, look me up on Twitter, then read my blog, then maybe find me on LinkedIn. And these places then help me to keep in contact with prospects/clients/partners over the course of our professional relationship.

Tina Athanasoulis - Manager, Online Traffic & Distribution, Yellow Pages Group
1) What SM or SN's do I user for business - 1.Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, technorotti, and new one for me Sphinn. On a more hyperlocal level;been using praized.com or answers.yellowpages.ca, meetup.com (for business events/groups).
2) I value the best and why? as of today 8-17-09;a) Linkedin for background check and discussions groups b) twitter; because when connected to authoritative newsworthy sites and or authority industry figures - you get really brief overview of what is going on and moreover with news feeds, a snapshot of what is happening around you locally and globally. Keeps you informed without having to channel surf i.e. with news, and gives you insight to industry specific studies and data i.e. authority figures and or industry e-news.
3) Have I generated leads from existing alliances as a result of Social Media - Yes, new online avenues have helped me stay connected with my network by keeping people informed of where I am and what I am working on. This as a result has helped me expand my business-not only online, however as a result has gotten me invited to offline events for additional opportunities.
Ok, this was a quick reply - feel free to contact me for clarification and or further explanation. Also, providing you with 2 online industry veterans that you are welcome to connect with - friends at www.searchtactix.com.

Steven Burda, MBA - Financial Planning, Procurement & Cost Management at Boeing, Founder, President & Philanthropist at Burda Consulting Co.
For me, Linkedin & Twitter.

Ed Barton - CEO at B-Line, LLC
I have found LinkedIn to be the best for staying connected in a business setting. I also am on FB and Twitter. FB is predominantly personal, and I don't use Twitter too much.
I find Linked to be the most useful because it is business focused, ad that is where the majorityof my time is focused.
We have found that the social media aspects allow our organization to hear the voice of the customer better. We have a media and customer engagement specialist in our marketing department to work our online strategy, including social media.

Ja War - Motivational Speaker, Author, Business Consultant: "THINK, PLAN, EXECUTE!" -JaWar
1) http://jawarspeaks.com http://twitter.com/jawar http://youtube.com/gojawar http://facebook.com/jawar -Linkedin, Myspace, Ning Network
2) http://jawarspeaks.com http://twitter.com/jawar http://youtube.com/jawar -Each of these sites play a significant role in giving potential and current clients details about my products and services. Additionally, these sites help me to communicate visually, through audio and interactive processes. They continue to bring me brand recognition, contacts, open windows of opportunities, generate leads and convert those leads into paying clients.
3) Yes

Maria Nikishyna - Search Engine Marketing Expert, Point IT
I think Biznik is starting to get more traction - they are localized and offer a lot of interesting features. I currently use LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Biznik - but there are many others probably worth mentioning.

Samir Tiwari - Global Sales/Marketing at KPO
For me, Linkedin, Facebook and Xing. As they covers for me the most of the regions I want to target. Although Linkedin was the most productive in terms getting new business leads. 

Donna (Davis) Mixon - Owner and Manager at MD Resort Bed & Breakfast ~ A Texas Guest Ranch
I use Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. I have had quite a bit of success with them and don't have one specific preference.

Norm Bobay - Founder. Consulting companies on hiring and developing quality personnel, Sales Training, Speaker
I use all the social networks and find that all of them work equally well for me. I also have made lots of new contacts and connections through them. As for clients, or actually income I can not be specific.

Dorion Baker - Talent Acquistion Consultant at Verizon Business
1) I use LinkedIn.
2) Obviously, I value LinkedIn best. LinkedIn also has a dashboard for Recruiting purposes which has proven to be very valuable.
3) I have increased revenue by hiring top notch talent to lead our global professional services business unit.

Pamela Portwood - Founder and Interior Design Principal at Greener Lives, LLC
1) I use Twitter the most. I don't have a blog because I write a monthly column on Green Interiors, and I post it on my website: www.greenerlives.net. (As an interior designer, I specialize in green design.) I also use LinkedIn. While I have a personal Facebook account, I do not have a business account simply because I do not have the time to maintain it.
2) I value my column (in print and online) the most because it gives me added credibility as an interior designer. It also allows me to share information and educate the public about green interior design issues. I like Twitter, and I have made a commitment to using it for my business although I have not seen any return on it yet, in terms of a customer base or business.
3) I have gotten work through my website. In one case, at least, my clients made their decision to hire me, instead of another green designer, based on reading my column online. They felt that it showed I was knowledgeable about the subject.

Noble DraKoln - Director of Business Development, Speculator Academy
1) LinkedIN, Facebook, Twitter, adding Youtube
2) LinkedIn, there are other professionals that are capable of buying my products or finding a synergy with quicker, because you know there background.
3) Several new strategic alliances have evolved and we are still navigating how to develop conversion from prospects to buyers.

Richard Rawdin - Previews Property Specialist at Coldwell Banker
I use Linkedin,Facebook,Ecademy,Wordpress,  ActiveRain,GreenPearl,PropertyHookup,NFP,and there are so many more that I cannot remember right now. My best use of the internet is through me own website www.HamptonsHomes4Sale.com Over 500 visitors amonth,5 real leads a week.....

Adam Murphy - Business Development Director - CISCO at Global Knowledge
1) Blogs, IT forums - numerous IT related forums and Cisco's own forums, Linkedin
2) Out of all the available social networks and social media which ones do you value as the best for your business?
- Linkedin - I have tried Facebook and Twitter and they are an end user tool for communication which is great for B2C but not B2B
3) Yes. We have won around £100k of business from Linkedin over the past 12 months compared to £1000 off facebook and £6k off Twitter. It allows you to be able to understand what the customer is really after and to see the key influencers via the extended network. We have also successfully recruited off Linkedin saving the £6k recruitment fee for a replacement expense of $200.

Phil Kleingeld - Owner at De Netwerkmakelaar; Professional networker, Public speaker; business coach, writer.
1) LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, Xing and local ones. (The Netherlands)
2) LinkedIn and Twitter. Twitter to boost my Google rating and LinkedIn as a specilized searchengine to find people with particular skills and/or network connections.
3) Answer:Most of my new clients come to me via the second and third line of my network. I help my clients in the same way by finding them new clients from within my network. Most of the time I am using Linkedin and Xing for these purposes, frequently I just call them and try to make a link between the two.

James Filbird - Owner, JMF International Trade Group Ltd.
1) Hands down, LinkedIn is the best business source for me. I have profiles at the other websites mentioned, but I don't find them to offer me the same rewards as does LinkedIn.
2) LinkedIn does. It provides the best resources, tools and technology for me to match up with potential business partners and customers. I obtain 60% of my business from LinkedIn and find the people there to be professional, courteous and sincere. I have practically built my entire business solely on LinkedIn and will continue to as long as I am in business.
3) Yes. I have formed six business partnerships from my contacts at LinkedIn which have already and will in the future generate considerable revenue for my business. To me, other social networking websites are not worth my time. It's the people and the technology platform at LinkedIn that makes it the best in the world.

Bill Sanders - President at Sanders Equipment Company, Inc.
I belong to LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Used to belong to Friendster too. I never tried to "monetize" my membership to any of these, since I believe that is not their purpose. Same as the internet itself, back in it's early days - anyone caught trying to sell something was "flamed." Of course, I am glad that .com domains were created for commercial enterprises, since I have made a good living for 17 years simply by advertising through my website and SEO.
Some businesses are better suited to social media promotion that others. Those that have wide popular appeal, like singers and bands, are ideal. I sell used industrial centrifuges. Most people have never heard of them - it's a very small niche market. So I just feel that I should use social media to socialize.

Ziona Etzion - Founding member of Truemanity / i-PRP / Social Activist / Artist ? lifesurfer!
I am doing a meeting with two groups on networking platforms about their experience online and what benefits there are or lack thereof. In my experience that main aim of many is monetization and they do not know how to do it.
I think it is the exposure that is the benefit and then it depends on the rest.

Maria Meiners - Law of Attraction Mentor/Coach
1) **my website is blog based and I also use Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and MySpace. Honestly that's about all I have time for right now. I made a Squidoo lens once but didn't do anything else with it, and I probably have memberships at other social networking sites but don't use them. For me it makes more sense to do a few and do them well than spread myself all over the net and do it poorly.
2) **Twitter, LinkedIn & Facebook.
3) **Yes, yes and yes. Social media is one of my primary forms of marketing and I've increased my opt in list tremendously and gotten clients and customers. My business is still young but I expect social media to be a huge part of my marketing plan for the foreseeable future.

Comments

[Steve]

Hi Andrew,

Q1. The social media I use for business include:

Linkedin
Twitter
Facebook
MyBlogLog
StumbleUpon
Youtube
Websites: selfgrowth.com and forums like stevepavlina.com

Q2. My bog is the most valuable to me because it draws traffic (and builds leads) so many different ways and has so many uses. It's the central hub of my business. As of right now, the top three traffic sources for my blog are:

a. Direct Traffic
b. Organic through Google
c. Partner sites that have linked to me

The second most valuable social media I use is Youtube. I publish videos on Youtube and embed them on my blog. It's been a really positive way to communicate on my blog. I've used the videos to share my offerings and complete product reviews that have converted sales. I even had one lady say that she checked out my site and decided to contact me because she had watched a few of my videos. She eventually became a client.

Q3. My blog has been a great tool to share my message and build joint venture partnerships online; some of which are with A-list Bloggers.

All of my current coaching clients (12 in total) have all come to me via my blog. So yes, blogging is a powerful way to generate leads and convert those leads into paying clients.

[Maria Paula Carlini]

I think that would be great if you could share not only successful cases.
Sometimes the bad experiences provides models on how use or even not use the social media.
In Brazil we had two examples that generated polemic results:
BestShop TV
and Telefonica I think that would be great if you could share not only successfull cases.
Sometimes the bad experiences provides models on how use or even not use the social media.
In Brazil we had two examples that generated polemic results:
BestShop TV and Telefonica
The idea "Love or hate me, but think about me" it is not a good marketing idea or excuse.
It is important to note that the audicience it is not open to see merchandises and advertises on the celebrities' blogs that they are following. When we go into a blog, we expect to find relevant tips or opinion from the bloger, not adds or payed coments.
The transparency it is the most important caracter of social media. The marketers needs to observe and honor this principle.

[Richard Kastelein]

1. I have had the most success with Linkedin - it has created over 100,000 euro worth of business for my company over the past 1.5 years. I also use Facebook, Twitter, and have used Facebook to broadcast projects, work and create new networks.

http://www.linkedin.com/in/expathos
http://www.twitter.com/expathos

2. Linkin and Twitter by far.

3. I have found several C-level positions with startups in London, New York, Brussels and Groningen.

[jd walsh]

very informative! @jdbasketball

[Jim Love]

I used Linked In more than any other social media. I also have a regular blog (www.changethegame.ca) and have done a lot with wikis.

I still have a feeling that participating actively in Linked In makes me more of a potential customer than potential supplier, but at least I can check someone out and see if I want to link with them.

I have to say that although I'm part of a group that started on Linked In, I found my way into it the old fashioned way - networking on a one on one personal basis.

That's okay because I'm not sure that I expect any immediate opportunities to come of this any more than I would via networking in my own association or other networking opportunities. Plus, I don't know if I've put enough effort into my Linked In network at this point to start talking about return on effort. And I knew it wouldn't be magic.

[Mark Amtower]

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?

I an on LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo, GovLoop, FederalContractor, Twitter, two professional speaking groups, and I have 2 active blogs. I am starting to test video & vlogs.

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you?

So far LinkedIn is the most productive. The other social netowrks are playing supportive roles to my LinkedIn activity (mulitple groups, connecting, Q&A, etc)

3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.

I have generated new consulting clients and paid event attendees by leveraging each social netowrk platform. Again, LinkedIn is the most productive as there are many more prospects in my market (business to government) on LinkedIn than on the several social networking platforms, but always hosting the "main" group at LinkedIn.

Each of these have also helped raise awareness about me and my activities, which leads to more connections from key decision amkers in my market.

[Adriana Romero]

1. So far Linkedin in and my own blog. I have used these tools for personal branding awareness.

2. Linkedin for professional purposes without a doubt. I have learned though that in order to get results you have to be active: answer questions, participate in discussions in groups, find people. I do think that still Linkedin is a little "static" there is more interaction tools needed. Twitter has been a good ;'awareness' generator, specially for campaigns I have developed for others

3. Strategic alliances have been the outcome of my social media activities

[SEO Expert]

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?

I create profiles on a lot of "social media sites" because no matter how small or obscure you think they are, somebody is looking at those sites and you never know who. Another reason is to grab your company name so nobody else does. The more visibility you have online the better, whether you choose to participate in any or all of these sites is another story.

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you?

Linkedin seems to work the best for my company, http://www.OneArmedSEO.com at the moment, but I've had people call me from those "smaller" sites as well...what's that old sales adage: "See the people"...that is especially easy to do now with all these social media networks popping up online.

3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.

As I said in my answer to #2, Linkedin has helped, and yes I have generated new paying customers and have found people that I want to work with and have added to my personal network. I tend to answer questions online quite a bit...questions from people who don't know SEO and also I like to "call out" the people spreading misinformation...people like that because they can see that I'm honest and have integrity, so I've already started building trust before we've even spoken...if you don't have trust, you have nothing...you might say I'm an SEO Crusader!

[Linda Matarasso]

Book Research: Q1. What Social Networks Work Best For You?

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?

I use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, You Tube, Myspace and Blogspot

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you? Explain.

The best social network seems to be Facebook as people can join a group or just check info or get invites to events they wish to be included in and can be connected as little or as much as they choose.

3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.

I haven't gained any paying customers but it has allowed me to do free advertising and build an audience and keep people aware of the progress of my projects. It has also allowed me to gain connections for contacts needed for some of the projects. It also allows me to contact people through facebook in an easy way.

[Ziona Etzion]

Andrew

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?

I am on
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=524544799&ref=pr...

Here I have built three groups

Creator of three Facebook groups

Directory for bloggers in Israel (English)

http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Fgroup.php%3Fgid%3D95344017615%23%2Fgroup.php%3Fgid%3D95344017615%26ref%3Dts&h=bec8ff21a10f35752f56b517b9bf2525

Truemanity

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95344017615#/group.php?gid=26461174041&ref=ts

The Wisdom of Thomas L. Friedman and David Brooks

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=95344017615#/group.php?gid=45267436524&ref=ts

This was the place that I learned the skills for social media. Listened, reached out,read what was going on online and go "invited out" too.

http://www.ecademy.com/user/zionaetzion
http://www.linkedin.com/in/zionaetzion

These two have similar aims ecademy being more interactive and open. Both have quality people.

http://www.meetup.com/SSVNetworkISRAEL/members/9864975/

The one above became interesting to me because
of the human element being brought back into focus.
http://www.triiibes.com/profile/ZionaEtzion67

Triiibes is a favourite of mine as it has great conversation going and talented people who are attracted to Seth Godin.

http://www.ning.com/zionaetzion

I admire the innovative ning idea and belong to many groups there.

http://friendfeed.com/zionaetzion
http://www.twitter.com/zionaetzion

I group the two above as the same idea and enjoy
ff more than twitter.

http://www.disqus.com/people/zionaetzion
http://digg.com/users/zionaetzion

Enjoy the interactiveness of those above.

http://www.plaxo.com/profile/show/581681?pk=68a8e232d49...

http://www.savvyauntie.com/ProfileHome.aspx?ProfileGUID=b119582a-813c-4020-94c4-16694d9e816a
http://truemanity.blogspot.com

I love the community here and am a social blogger.

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you?

Facebook and now Ecademy and Linkedin.

Monetization...that is next...that is the big question! How can all these people expect others to pay for their ideas, want to be coached, want to buy a course,product or book.

Why would they want to belong to a certain community above another one.

What is the value we perceive online.

You know Andrew...why these questions...I did not really have an Aha moment from the answers?

Why did I do all this?

I am a social activist/entrepreneur...my aim is to share ideas,give people alternative and build
a inclusive global community.

[Kathleen]

1. I use LinkedIn for business contacts and Facebook to catch up with old friends. Although I am using FB to build my home business.

2. As far as landing a job I think LinkedIn would work best for me, although I have gotten info from friends about positions as well

3. On LinkedIn I have a small network of people that I email on a regular basis to pass on a lead or updates on either my status or theirs. We believe in the "Pay it Forward" approach. Although it has not gotten me hired yet, it has given me some great contacts for future possibilities.

On Facebook, I'm working my home business with friends, but not shoving it down their throat. I do consider FB to be completely social, and more for catching up over the past 25 years. Because these people actually know me, they are more than willing to help me in any way that they can. Thats what friends do. I try to keep it completely social, and I do not link to businesses with it. I also have my page set so a potential employer can not see it. Something that someone posts on my wall may be taken out of context, so I keep this as my private forum

[Michele @maxOz]

Michele Smorgon - Social Media Director - maxOz
Hello ALL
Social Media is my 'Key Specialization / Service for my Consulting Business -
I have found immense value as numbered below:
1.Twitter (maxOz)
2.My blog - http://www.maxoz.com.au
3.LinkedIn (michele smorgon) and
4.Faceboook (msmorgon)
5.Ecademy (michele smorgon)
In a wonderful article, I recently posted 'Twitter is about what you know and Facebook is about who you know' http://tr.im/uRkb
LinkedIn is about your career path, history, experience and skills.
Although of late, as with Facebook, there has been an enormous push to join forums and groups.
An excellent example of the benefits of social media and its ROI: "Flowerdale Bushfire Recovery" http://tr.im/ubo9
Social Media is a relatively new phenomena and there is still much to evolve in it's benefits and uses for Business.
I love Social Media because it has created a platform of transparency, networking and close proximity, with the ability to create visibility and credibility.
Twitter has been the most effective in generating traffic to my blog and business

[Richard Mooney]

1. I use mainly Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube Facebook and Bebo for all purposes of social media.

2. I've found as a journalist that articles can come from social media outlet on the web.

The amount of users, friends and contacts you can garner from each is limitless.

However, Linkedin has proven to be a very useful networking tool. I have gained much professionally from it, such as a new media blog and media newsgroups memberships.

3. As a digital journalist for a local newspaper group, no I haven't gained much financially. I suppose you can really only equate it to the success of the story.

For example I was the first person to interview Susan Boyle on Camera after her Britain's Got Talent audition aired.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn7So0NC74s

We got in touch with her via the usual means of telephone, then broke the video on line that very same afternoon. The next morning it had nearly 300,000 views.

The average viewings for our other videos are around 1,000/2,000 and it usually takes a few weeks before it reaches such a figure.

The interview was very rushed and not the best quality, but we got it on line that afternoon and to date it's had over 4.5 million views.

[Glenda Browne]

I am a self-employed information professional, so perhaps smaller scale than most of the companies you're looking at. I use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter for business purposes.

I value LinkedIn most for business connections. Can't say whether it has generated work, but I have been introduced to work contacts through it. Because some of what I do is teach courses and write books, I can't immediately tell what effect my online presence has had on my results.

I am now experimenting with Facebook as a way to promote a specific product (a workbook on indexing called 'The Indexing Companion Book Indexing Workbook'. I like the less formal nature of this for engendering a range of discussions. This book has not yet been launched, so no idea how sales will go, and whether Facebook will have influenced them.

Glenda Browne

[Pooky Amsterdam]

1- I use LinkedIn as my number one business network. It is all for business, and the people I can get in touch with, and who can get in touch with me there, are great.
& I also use Twitter, and have gotten some business from Twitter, and some great information. Twitter is an addition to the mix- I look for people in internet marketing, social media and that leads to blogs I like to read and comment on. I have also found some great events through twitter.
2-Best network for me is Second Life, that is where I work out of and where I am building my media empire. http://bit.ly/SjCcT
3-My business has been generated from the work I am doing on Second Life, though I have been asked to speak on topic through twitter contacts, and someone found me through LinkedIn who I am doing a project for right now.

[Shel Horowitz - Ethical Marketing Expert]

For me, the two most important networks have been Yahoogroups and Twitter. Yahoogroups (and other e-mail discussion communities) have brought me literally hundreds of clients since 1995. And after all these years on e-mail discussion lists, Twitter seems like the natural next step. I have built community, found resources, sold a few books, and more, and I'm still getting warmed up.

Helen, congrats on your new benture.

[@MeganMcQ]

1. As use of social media expands, I believe that there will be an increasing cross between our personal and professional lives. My ‘personal brand’ encompasses my work. I use all of my social media presences (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, my company Web site and three blogs) to advance my personal ideologies on my professional industry and include other reflections on my life. I reflect my personality throughout my posts and interactions on sites. Essentially, I’m trying to say I use all of my social media interactions for business purposes to some extent-- whether it be directly (to pursue new business) or indirectly (advance my understanding of the industry by commenting on the blogs I read daily.)

2. Blogs are the most invaluable of all of the social media available for several reasons:
a) Blogs democratize knowledge and allows readers to connect through reflection in the comments section of the post. I take about 20-30 minutes each day to read through my ever-expanding blog roll and comment or RT posts I find most pertinent to my understanding.
b) Blogs allow me to maintain a competitive advantage over my competition. Reading blogs allows me to stay fluent in my industry. They consolidate information. Blogs such as Mashable, Tech Crunch or ReadWriteWeb are usually jump-off points for many of my posts, as I can look at the trends and decipher my own conclusions that aid me in my client work.

3. My primary source of getting new customers and garnering interest in my services are based on interpersonal connections and referrals. However, I direct my potential clients to my blog posts and my other online activity. Having established strong presences on the Web helps bolster my image, reputation, and trust in my capacities for my services. One client recently commented on my blog the following: (ellipses indicate shortened section)

Hi Megan,
Love your blog! I met you at the BNI last Friday. You were just the message from “above” that I needed. I want and need to approach the blog/social media online world. I have dabbled. But I need help! Erich Cabe’s recommendation of you through the BNI is all I need. … I am certain that I am just not properly known (Do they all say that?) Can we talk sometime? How could I access your service?

I hope this helps, Andrew!

[Dina Barabash]

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you? Explain.

As a Marketing Director I am constantly looking to network and learn more about my target audience. I have found that Twitter has been most helpful to me and my marketing efforts. The ability to find such a variety of groups and people makes my job of network that much easier. I love being able to type in a specific demographic that I am interested in and immediatley being able to target them, whereas with Linkedin you have to ask permission to network with someone.

[Judy Harper]

I am the Director of Green Edge NYC, a New York environmental nonprofit. Our website, www.greenedgenyc.org, is a social network for people interested in sustainability. In addition we have stepped up our use of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Meet-Up and Idealist.org.

Up to now our own website and Facebook have been most valuable, but we hope to really build our Twitter following to encourage people to attend our events.

We are in the process our evaluating our use of social media to determine what really works best for us, if you are interested in speaking with nonprofits for your project, I'd be glad to share that information in a month or so, once we've had a chance to evaluate our new campaigns.

[Helen Pina]

1. What social media (your own blogs, forums, wiki's, etc) or social networks (LinkedIn, Facebook, Ecademy, Plaxo, Twitter, YouTube, etc) do you use for business purposes?
I use LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Vimeo, and will soon be using Flickr.

2. Out of all the available networks and media which ones do you value as the best for you?
LinkedIn!

3. Have you generated new paying customers, increased revenue from existing customer or strategic alliances as a result of your social media activities? Please explain.
Yes, new customers have been generated from LinkedIn. YouTube and Vimeo are great to have as resources to promote our multimedia work.

[Ron Clark]

I use Plaxo, LinkedIn, and Twitter. LinkedIn is my primary online networking site.

LinkedIn works best for my agency because I can target people in advanced searches that I want to link to and then establish relationships with them online. I have done a lot of recruiting through Linked In and have brought on some of my most successful agents via that medium.

I don't use LinkedIn to gather customers. I use it to network relationships for down the road and for recruiting (which has proven to be most effective at targeting the people I am looking for).

[Rebecca Lincoln]

My business is very new. I'm still putting final touches on the blog and have only recently started using social networking sites. So far I find Facebook, LinkedIn, my blog, and maybe Twitter useful. I'm still learning the ropes of all four. However, Facebook has already generated some clients, which is surprising since I haven't been purposefully marketing. I was really just letting friends know what was going on with me and sent in a few blog posts. In the long run, I think LinkedIn will be the most useful and we shall see. While I'm not sure about the client potential from twitter, it is a great resource of information for my blog.

[Adam]

I use Linkedin for business networking.

[catherine mcquaid]

1. I use LinkedIn and my own blog www.HuntNewBiz.com

2. LinkedIn is best for me since I provide key account acquistion services for business/professional services firms. Hence, my market is B2B, not B2C.

3.I have generated revenue. A client found me on LinkedIn and reached out in person.

I have found alliances online. Since I'm not a social media expert but want to expand my service offering, I recruited 4 specialists with whom I now collaborate.

[Nanette Levin]

I've found LinkedIn to be the most effective community for building business alliances, finding vendors, identifying potential future authors (I am a publisher), getting help from others in finding needed resources and getting useful feedback on questions and ideas. It's a great group of forums if you find the right groups and participate. I will be launching a blog in the next few weeks, so do not have any experience (yet) on this front, but expect to in the coming months.

[Duane Roberts]

I started launched a website and blog to promote my job management tool back in March of this year http://www.careerunleashed.com and have used a multi-pronged approach to getting the word out. I will usually post non commercial (read personal) messages on FaceBook to wet the appetitie. I use LinkedIn and Twitter to announce when I've updated the blog or software.

I'm seeing the most bang for my buck come from LinkedIn. The community seems to be more active and open to my product. This is probably due to the ability I have to target my message by joining groups that have an interest in my topic.

Almost all of my business comes through my online media marketing efforts.

[Michelle Pfaff]

postin just to correct the adress in my previous post: http://marketing-e-inovacao.blogspot.com

[Michelle Pfaff]

Hello, I work with sales & marketing for technology products, and love the digital marketing theme.
I have many blogs (about marketing, travels and also photoshop).
One of them (http://marketing-e-inovacao.blogspot.com) is used to post about marketing and branding initiatives around the world. In ends up showing my knowledge and my work. I also created a discussion group on Google Groups (that has today almost 300 people), and because of this interaction I received an invitation to create and be an instructor in a digital marketing course.
I think that this interaction and network is very important, and so I use also my Linkedin profile to keep people informed on what I am doing. In my opinion, Linkedin (at least in Brazil, where I live) is the best social media for corporate contacts.

[Helen Charles-Morgan]

HI, my business is literally 1 week old, but i have been using social sites for about a year. I am in recruitment on a international basis, and i am using all of the sites, twitter, facebook, linkedin, i also have a blog and my own website, at this stage I feel that Linked in offers and gives the best feedback, you have the world at your fingertips. With twitter it is only a snapshot that is given to your followers, so not real feedback,or impact...Linked in means you can target and inmail who you want and get results daily. I have found all my candidtes on Linked in, and then backed up who i am with branding on all the other sites....