What are the benefits of using social media? Many of us think of social media as being for high school or college kids. They love it. But, business professionals know its value too. There's great gain for business leaders using social media to build awareness and become known as thought leaders.

• Blogs build reputation and share information.
• Wikis are for collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Forums and message boards gather feedback to solve mutual problems.
• Social networks help build relationships.

In SAS external communications, I'm encouraging marketing colleagues on technology/industry/solutions teams to dip a toe into the social media waters now. For many, that means monitoring and responding to two or three blogs weekly and joining a community such as IT Toolbox.

Others want to jump in with both feet, and so I shared the following resources. Some of these are suited to work/life balance. Others are business oriented. Most are free.

Try out the ones you think help you do your job and please show others how to use them.

Shel Holtz and Dave Pogue who spoke at the Web 2.0 event at SAS in Cary, NC last week, recommended these to us.

QuickCast lets you create Webcasts using only a phone, PowerPoint, and an internet connection. They give free 14-day trials.

Seesmiv allows you to add video to your blog comments.

Doplr is a social network for business travelers—connecting LinkedIn contacts (Doplr is the reason that Shel said he never dines alone when traveling).

Live Mesh allows you to store documents on the cloud (cloud computing). Then you can access documents from any device.

Google Docs allow you to collaborate/share without sending your draft documents via email as most of us do now.

Twitter Fan Wiki apps let you follow what friends are saying online by bringing posts from various locations together for easy reading.

Freebase is an open, shared database of the world’s knowledge.

OpenID is an online system that securely stores your personal information. To save you time, it automatically fills in forms with your info on sites that support it.

Pandora is a music recommendation agent that bases offers on your previous selections.

Wetpaint lets you create a free wiki on ANY topic of your choice.

Serina Software enables easy mashups without IT help.

TownSquare is “FaceBook” for a company to allow people to update their info so others know their latest. It’s integrated with SharePoint.

FriendFeed allows a customized feed to help you keep-up with friends’ latest postings.

Pipes by Yahoo is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups.

DoMyStuff is an online job center for outsourcing things people don’t want to do themselves.

GoLoco helps people share trips with friends and neighbors. Talk about reducing our carbon footprint!

Trip Advisor gives current and honest traveler reviews on hotels, vacations, and more.

And, Dave Pogue’s favorite is Who is sick. It mashes up Google Maps with information that users report. You can search your local area for symptoms to see how many others report the same illness. I noticed Shel Holtz twitter asking about this site after Dave presented at the Regan event. If you’ve used this site, you may want to respond to Shel.

It takes time for all of us to feel comfortable leveraging social media. Trying out some of these may help. If something is useful to you, please show others how to use it so your organization can benefit on a larger scale.