I did a talk tonight for a local non-profit group and most were very interested in social media and others couldn't understand 
what all the fuss was about. Fuss indeed. Whether we like it or not, the social media train is fast, it's here, and it's not going away. Those businesses and non-profits that see the value in using the tools of this new digital frontier will enjoy the benefits of the organic growth a strategic social media campaign can generate. In the social sphere, there are many ways to generate business using social media and we'll start with some simple blogging strategies to follow :
Social media, when included in an overall business development plan, is very effective in 
generating targeted leads. The key is to work your network across multiple channels. Use Twitter as a lead developer vehicle for identifying and engaging with prospects. Invite your new follower to become a fan of your Facebook Fan page. Once engaged, provide an incentive to your new fan to opt-in to your marketing lists. Give your email campaigns and other marketing efforts more reach by cross promoting in your social network. Use Google Analytics (free), and other measurement tools to measure social media, web and blog traffic. Trackur is a social media monitoring tool that tracks nearly every element of online media, from blogs, RSS feeds and Tweets, to images and video. It start at $18/mo subscription but also offers a free version.
