Book excerpt: Practical applications for using social media to boost your business Even today's most successful businesses are seeing shrinking returns on their advertising and marketing dollars. The Digital Handshake explains why advertising and marketing are losing their effectiveness and how to solve the problem using social media to corral elusive consumers. It explains the best practical business applications in current use and how you can use them to ramp up your business. Using case studies gleaned from real businesses, author Paul Chaney shows you how companies both large and small that can tap social media to mitigate market changes and reap valuable business benefit in the real world. Explains how you can use social media to grow your business and connect with consumers Author Paul Chaney is a leading authority on blogging and social media Covers practical, effective business applications for blogging, social networking, online video, microblogging and much more Shows how to design a comprehensive marketing strategy using traditional and new media platforms Today's technology can either undermine your marketing efforts or enhance them. The Digital Handshake helps you make sure the Internet grows your business for the long run.