By NYU Staff

Here is an interesting website that offers suggestions on how to develop and augment your social network. The website is worth checking whether you are a simple blogger who wants to increase the traffic, a journalist or a media organization. The most interesting part is the social media Ebook that you can download for free. Here are some useful pieces of advice I derived from the website:

1. If you plan to write a blog to form a social network make sure it’s a value-driven, authoritative blog that adds value to the community.
2. Don’t use Twitter just to advertise you articles/products but instead try to create a network of followers and build a community that cherishes your organization.
3. Use Facebook, Digg or Stumble to spread the message.
4. It is important to monitor the discussions about your article/brand and respond to the messages.
5. Use metrics to evaluate your performance and ask yourself: ”How many leads or sales is your blog producing/how many evangelists and fans have Twitter and Facbeook created / Who are your evangelists and fans and how can you reward them / How much traffic have bloggers and Twitter users produced for your site/ What is the conversion rate for each of your social tools.”

The Ebook dwells on all these subjects and can be downloaded after you subscribe on the website.