Social Media for Business: 5 Tips for Beginners

Social media is a low-cost way to find new customers and reach out to existing ones. More than 40% of businesses using Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and blogs have generated a customer from each of them, according to Hubspot’s 2010 State of Inbound Marketing report. But if you're brand new to social media, the process of developing a worthwhile business plan might seem intimidating. To truly understand the business ramifications of services like Twitter and Facebook, you first have to start using them -- and just signing up for an account is not enough. Engaging regularly on social networks is the only way to see their potential. (Read the article "Social Media for Business: 5 Tips for Beginners" at Open Forum online.)