How do you use social networking sites to build business?

Let your customers and prospects tell you which social site to use. Look at your web stats and see if you already have traffic originating from some of these sites. Then go to social network sites and see if people are talking about you. If they are, then it's likely a good place to start.

It's a waste of time to create a Facebook page if you are targeting C-level Insurance execs who don't use Facebook, but may be very useful if you are looking to connect here with another demographic who are heavy users of the site. Another way you can decide is by taking a sample of your customer or prospect list, loading it into an address book in Google mail, and then syncing it with the social media site to see how many people you know are participating. If no-one on your list is using the site then you should spend your time on others.

What's important to remember is you need to participates where your customers want to participate, not just the sites your friends or kids are using.

For how to use the sites my best piece of advice is to create a custom strategy for each site. What works for one won't work for another. To read how Marketo uses Twitter check out this out: http://www.marketo.com/b2b-marketing-resources/marketo-twitter.php