One site I highly recommend you visit is Social Media Examiner if you haven’t already. There is a wealth of information and tools (and an interesting report) you can get just by touring that site.
A post that came up today was 26 Ways To Use Social Media to Generate Leads. Of particular interest to me were the ideas to use the Help a Reporter Out service (HARO), becoming a source or expert on your topic and gaining the benefit of free publicity for your business.
A helpful hint here: be very precise with the tasks you respond to when using HARO, make sure there is a match between what a reporter is asking for, and what you can provide as a source.
Also, storytelling was of interest to me. Having a story to tell about your business is a key element to “starting a conversation” about your business…and helps with branding as well.
From a “rags to riches” story, to a story about why your business was created; “I was frustrated with how _____ was happening in my industry, so I created a business around solving this dilemma”…and other angles for your story…create one today if you don’t already have one, and use that story in your conversations and marketing.
Anyhow, I recommend you read this post and implement at least 5 items off of the list today…right now…not a second later…immediately…ASAP…. ummm, you get the point.
Oh yeah, and tour the site too, you’ll find a goldmine of tips. 
Enjoy.
Great article! I’d say the more active you are on various forums, you will realize that more people follow and trust you. However the catch is that you can only create such kind of trust if you are indeed providing a genuine help. If not, then such an act can actually recoil back; and just like in any other medium, as they say “bad news spreads faster”; your name in the industry will spread much faster than you can imagine and you will be barred from many societies and forums. So be genuine and helpful. That’s one of the best ways to generate leads. I have myself used some simple ways of just helping others and have generated great leads for my business like that! I have tried to address the same here: http://blog.ellipsissolutions.com/2011/03/18/how-to-generate-leads-by-simply-helping-others/
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Looking forward to read some more great stuff on your blog.
cheers,
GT
Thanks for sharing your thoughts as well GT
I appreciate the visit to the blog as well.
Joseph