Here's some additional: 
 
1. Used LinkedIn and find out who people you are connected to are connected to. This gives you a chance of a warm introduction to these. 
 
2. Monitor traffice using an RSS feed via twitter search and also through google alerts. As well as monitoring your own brand monitor your competitors brand. 
 
3. Find people within companies you want to sell into and connect in with them and develop a relationship. 
 
4. Check out who is visiting your profile on LinkedIn, they may be companies interested in your product. 
 
5. Set up events within a social networking platform that promote an event that is educational but relates to your product service. 
 
All the best, 
 
Ian

this is an insightful article that shows everyone can be a content creator - not just the marketing dept - of a company. Sales is vital to an organization and because they are on the "front line", oftentimes see things first. good work, Ellie!

World class sales in the 21st century has different rules. Everything that happens in the sales process is transparent. That means gatekeepers can no longer restrict information because you can find the decision maker on linked in; salespeople need to be aware that everything you do in a sales pursuit will wind up on twitter and your digital reputation is critically important and can add meaningfully to the sales process.

I sent this post to our entire sales team. We broker used industrial equipment. Some social networking (linkedin) has caught on but clearly we have some work to do.  
 
 
 
Here's some interesting feedback from a sales executive in my company who is technically savvy in his 30s, and usually has a very good marketing mind. 
 
 
 
Five more ways ... 
 
 
 
1. Waste Time. Instead of banging the phones, you can spend hours following inconsequential details of the day-to-day drudgery of other people’s lives. 
 
 
 
2. Reduce Productivity. When you focus, you get more work done faster and better – creating a risk of being assigned more work. With Twitter, you can be interrupted every 5 minutes, ensuring that you won’t have the mental focus to do anything productive. 
 
 
 
3. Embarrass yourself. With other media, most people have inhibitions about what they say – and any unwise utterances are quickly forgotten. Twitter enables you to quickly (without thinking) and easily dash off disturbing thoughts and details that you might later regret – while providing a permanent record of any such faux pas. 
 
 
 
4. Give away the secret sauce. One of the great things about Twitter is that your competitors can follow you too. It’s a particularly good idea to let them know which big sales you are working on, who your contacts are, and how you will win the deal. 
 
 
 
5. Be a lemming. Why do you need to be on Twitter? Because “everybody’s doing it.” Really? Who? 
 
 
 

@benpotenza great points. I think they would make a great follow-up article - 5 Things Not To Do on Twitter.  
 
While I agree in theory - indulging in extra curricular activities will only hurt the sales rep as it will impact their results. 
 
And there are so many other outlets for wasting time, giving away secret sauce...I wonder why everyone picks on social media/twitter! 
 
Thanks for sharing!

I know it's hard to believe but there are still a gzillion people not on Twitter. So, there's a good chance your prospect is one who is not using Twitter. 
 
In that case, the industry research is still very effective.  
 
Another way to use Twitter is to set up an RSS feed of Twitter search results for keywords that can produce sales leads. Let the sales opportunities just flow into your RSS stream this way.

Examples of how to best use Twitter and other social media: http://tinyurl.com/yzmu8ct

The best source still comes from PLR products.