have a client who once said to me: “We want to use social media to attract more complaints&#. This may seem an odd thing to say, all to often attracting complaints is a reason people cite for being anxious about using social media. People use social media for lots of things, but they often use it to express their opinion about a brand or organisation, to tell you where things are good and to tell you where things are bad. This is where social media can be useful as a tool to keep people informed. Image by ajburgess via Flickr. MORE >>

Tweet Using social media to bring business value is an obvious choice for many companies. But the benefits of using social media inside an organization still remains somewhat unexplored. Altimeter Group just released a report Making The Business Case For Enterprise Social Networks that include extensive research where results show that enterprise social networking can provide value to the organization, especially around collaboration between departments, finding experts or share expertise from around the company as well as sharing best practices. MORE >>

simple tool like Google Alerts would pick up most stray citations. The explosion of social media has led to a corresponding need for more sophisticated monitoring tools that can crawl the hundreds of social networking and bookmarking sites and millions of blogs across the globe. rapidly proliferating collection of tools are being developed to meet the need. You can find a list of more than 150 social media monitoring tools here or close to 200 here , but—that can seem overwhelming. Social Mention. No more. UberVU. MORE >>

Social Links Freelance Social Media Social Media Tips and Marketing Blog Home About Contact Subscribe Social Networking Online and Non-Profit Organizations by Meghan on May 26, 2009 As budgets and fundraising levels for non-profits get smaller, more organizations are turning to using social networking online as an essential part of their overall marketing strategy. Non-profits see online social media as an inexpensive way to build relationships, increase involvement, and help out with publicity and education efforts. MORE >>

Did you know you can use Amazon.com as a social networking tool? This is truly a useful tool for writers, musicians, artists, other crafts persons, and people in the publishing industries. Amazon.com can be your niche networking space. Here are some tips to help make Amazon.com a social networking application for you: When you read a book, listen to music, or try out a new product, leave a review. Amazon can be used for social networking. It’s an online department store with social benefits. Are you a big reader? MORE >>