"The Real ROI of Social Media"

The Real ROI of Social Media
http://www.openforum.com/idea-hub/topics/money/article/the-real-roi-of-social-media-scott-allen

Some interesting thoughts about social media (Twitter, Facebook, blogs, or any online tool that allows many users to share information)... related to what I mentioned here about social media not necessarily bringing instant direct bookings:

What's the ROI of the telephone? Or email? It's a ridiculous question, right? It would be impossible to have a business without them. They're how you communicate with your employees, customers, partners — everybody. Social media is just a collection of communication tools, and they have flourished because for certain tasks, they're better than the phone, email, or face-to-face communications.

The article also mentions how social media can be used for internal communication:

Use social media internally.

Again, it's just a communication tool, and for certain applications, it can be far more effective than other tools. Consider setting up a blog for a major project, a wiki to enable a department to build a body of knowledge, microsharing like Yammer for more timely internal communication, an internal video library, etc. Not only will you reap the benefits of improved internal communications, you'll also get people comfortable with the tools so they can use them more effectively "in the wild".

There is plenty of free software that can be used for internal communication, forums, wikis, Drupal, or hosted software like Yammer.