One of the key activities in getting the most out of social media is finding relevant people, blogs, conversations, wikis, forums etc. Even a site using a free domain name can go a long way with the help of social media. This is a list of sites that will help to find those shiny needles in the giant haytstack of the web.

Unified Social Media Search

These sites aggregate search results from multiple sites and services.

• SocialMention – http://socialmention.com/
• WhosTalkin – http://www.whostalkin.com/
• SamePoint – http://samepoint.com/
• Delver – http://www.delver.com/

Blog Directories and Search

Directories are a good way to find blogs by category although search is usually a better indication of the relevance of a blog’s content.

• Blog Catalog - http://www.blogcatalog.com/
• MyBlogLog - http://www.mybloglog.com/
• Twingly – http://www.twingly.com/
• Google Blogsearch – http://blogsearch.google.com/
• PostRank – http://www.postrank.com/
• Technorati – http://www.technorati.com/

Twitter Directories

These sites help you find Twitter users based on categories. The downside is that you can only find people who have added themselves to the directories but they can be a quick way to find relevant people.

• WeFollow – http://wefollow.com/
• Just Tweet It – http://justtweetit.com/
• Twellow – http://www.twellow.com/
• TwitterLinkUp – http://www.twitterlinkup.com/
• TwitDir – http://twitdir.com/