I have come to understand that the various social media tools can be used in both social and business cases. But I can’t help but wonder when some of the social tools will generate money?

If you are not very familiar with social media, I recommend that you stop right now, and have a look at Common Craft’s instructional videos which deal with social media and social networks.

It seems as if businesses are finding ways to use social media (usually without paying anything). One high-profile example of a business which has taken up social media is Zappos. This is an extract from Sarah Milstein’s article in the New York Times, How Twitter can help at Work, where she points to one way to use Twitter:

I would suggest that there are two challenges that can make it hard for social media sites to make money. First, there are so many social media sites now that users are confused. There’s a lot of experimentation, but people are still not sure. I refer you to Overdrive’s social media map for social media marketing which is merely a partial list of social media tools and sites, but is almost overwhelming. Second, we now expect things to be very easy and won’t deal with any tools that are overly complicated or where the developer cannot quickly explain what it is and how to use it. For this point I end with the wise words from Robert Scoble in his post: “It’s time for the geeks to sit down and shut up.”

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About the Author: Martin Lindeskog is a “trader in matter & spirit” and a small business entrepreneur in Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a board member of the Swedish National Association of Purchasing and Logistics (Silf, Western Region). Martin also writes a long-standing blog called Ego and will soon start a new series of interviews for his podcasting show on the Solid Vox network.

Martin is part of the Small Business Trends Expert Network.