American Express small business card members have fueled the success of the company's social media initiatives, specifically with the social networking site American Express OPEN. According to Sean Callahan and Ellis Booker of BtoBOnline.com, the site, provides small-business owners with online content and tools intended to help them grow their businesses, supports the American Express brand, said Marcy Shinder, VP-brand strategy and marketing for American Express OPEN. The site was created with a team of fewer than five people and at a fraction of the cost of other marketing initiatives, such as TV advertising, Shinder said.

American Express uses Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and blogs to drive traffic to the site, which in addition to attracting small-business owners, has also drawn other marketers looking to reach that market. FedEx, for example, has become a paying sponsor of a segment of the site.

For those of you in attendance at this year's Community 2.0 event in San Francisco, we had the pleaseure of welcoming Pepper E. Roukas, Director, Content & Community Development, American Express Global Advertising and Brand Management. Pepper discussed American Express's strategy and even provided us with the case study of OPENForum.

Track Presentation: Needs are the Seeds for B2B