At the Warrillow conference - which focuses on small business - I saw how a variety of companies are making attempts to enter social media.

Take CDW, which is a mega information technology (IT) distributor. About a year ago, the company launched Conduit. Basically, it is a social networking site focused on small business IT pros.

According to Lauren McCadney - who heads up the effort - the site has grown organically, as members have connected with each other to solve problems. This is important since small companies usually have one or two IT pros in their organization. So yes, things can get isolated and loney.

But there were risks. After all, user-generated content can be tricky. What if members make bad comments about CDW?

"Members have good manners on the site," said McCadney. "It hasn't been a problem." In fact, there is a separate section, called CDW Talk, where members can vent.

Conduit has also found ways to monetize things, such as through sponsorships. For example, there is a makeover contest; that is, a small business can win up to $50,000 in services and support from Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT).

Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The Complete M&A Handbook and The Edgar Online Guide to Decoding Financial Statements. He also operates MergerBook.com.

CDW tinkers with social networking originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 16 May 2008 12:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.