Balance your resources and manage crowd sourcing by asking which tools are appropriate in solving your problem. Define what people look for in those channels. Startups and small businesses are reversing the approach and utilizing traditional resources last…

The burgeoning field of social entrepreneurship is experiencing rapid growth and attracting attention from many sectors. Behind every successful business venture is passion; a bold foundation among many other key values that supports any venture through today’s wavering economic climate.

Watch the video above, “How Social is Driving Entrepreneurship” featuring Phil Pearlman, Executive Editor, StockTwits and Partner at Social Leverage, LLC.,  Jeremy Kagan, CEO & Founder of Pricingengine.com and Adjunct Professor at Columbia Business School and Raina Merchant, Assistant Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the MyHeartMap Challenge.

These panelists cite that from their use of social media these key values were enabled for their entrepreneurial endeavors:

1. Balance Resources -  Managing strategies must be applied through social media efforts as well. Ask what value you will find in reaching social media communities, what your company is willing to invest in that audience and what will you present once you’ve grabbed their attention. This is how an investment in time and resources gets allocated in a manner that meets your expectations.

2. Functionality with Low Impact - There are more versatile options for entrepreneurs in the social era than there were just 10 years ago. Many free tools exists that enable small business owners and entrepreneurs to explore v.c. communities, manage content, connect to numerous social media accounts simultaneously, provide analytics, shorten URLs and connect swiftly with all accounts via mobile. These tools pose more benefit than risk and can easily upgrade to conform to the growth of you business.

3. Improve Efficiency - Utilizing these social tools to collaborate with experts and like-minded professionals improves the speed at which small businesses and entrepreneurs are locating valuable ideas and resources within a community that cares about the subject matter and likely are interested in helping.

Follow up with our panelists now about entrepreneurship in the social space. Tweet to Jeremy Kagan @KaganJ, Raina Merchant @myheartmap and Phil Pearlman @Ppearlman.