Is Social Media Good for Business?

This in not a new or an original question by any means but one that businesses are asking, including and especially the Fortune 1000 and other large and mid-sized corporations. I answered it twice for my small business, once here with a case study and once at MarketingProfs, which did a case study of my business's client base via social media.

However, one business case study does not a reason make for adopting or not adopting social media tools. In fact, I have doubts about the business usefulness of social media tools and cannot in good conscience argue that any of my clients should at this time invest in these tools. Primarily that is because I guarantee results and am uncomfortable doing so with social media tools.

Therefore, I want to hear from you: What good does social media do for business and if your answer is building relationships, explain. Because at the end of the day, if there is but on use to secure ROI, building relationships, we need to explain why that will result in new customers. Some of you will argue that point. Feel free but if you don't share with us how and why building relationships using social media is more productive, efficient and effective than traditional media that businesses already employ, such as thought papers, e-mail, surveys, or face-to-face networking, than I argue that your social media argument might ring shallow and hollow with most business executives.

Here are my questions:

1. Has social media resulted in new business for your company?
2. If yes, explain how, why and/or who?
3. If no, explain why you spend company time on social media?
4. Do you have a presence on the social networking sites (i.e., Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Plaxo Pulse)?
5. If yes, why?
6. If no, why not?
7. Which Social Media tools do you use (i.e., blogs, vlogs, podcasts, Twitter, other)?
8. Which ones are most likely to grow new business? Why?
9. Overall, what has been your experiences using Social Media tools?
10. Do you encourage your customers to use Social Media? Why or why not?
11. Might the above answers differ depending on whether or not a business is b2b or b2c? Why or why not?

For more on this subject, see Steve Woodruff's The “Brand” of Social Media. And don't miss Maria Palma's answers at her blog.