Andrew Brown, group operations director, Lick UK
"We don't tend to use any social networking sites as a business incentive, apart from LinkedIn, but we find that this is very useful for networking. We have found that a number of our senior directors have reacquainted themselves with old contacts and we have had some really useful outcomes that have led to new meetings with positive outcomes. It also gives you access to look up old colleagues. However, while we are happy to use LinkedIn at work, we don't generally encourage our staff to use sites such as Facebook." 

Katie Colbourne, PR & social media exec, Volume Group
"Social networking has opened up many new opportunities for us that previously we wouldn't have thought possible. We have had interest from new markets and started dialogues with people who are potential partners. We established our own Twitter page around five months ago and were amazed at the amount of interaction almost straightaway. Today Twitter is one of our top referral sites, not only to our own website, but also for campaigns we have worked on. By maintaining interaction levels you constantly keep your customers/target audience engaged, bringing you ever closer to your customers first hand."

Nigel Cliffe, managing director, Cliffehanger
Twitter is incredibly valuable. Simply put, what does Twitter do for me? It allows me to connect with those people whose opinions I find interesting, whose thoughts and ideas enlighten or enrich me in some way – either in business or in my personal life. By using Twitter’s hash tag features I can track whatever or whomever I choose, from atrocities in Afghanistan to a great place to eat tonight. By using Twitter’s search engine model, I can track, real-time, any subject I choose. Tweetdeck brings all this together in one place on my desktop – a window to the world I choose and am interested in.