Social media for small organizations on local markets

Today I haven't had much time to do Social Media research, but there is one thing that I can't get out of my system. Thanks to yesterday's post, about listening instead of talking when using social media as marketing tools, I was recommended to check out Nielsen's website. Nielsen Buzzmetrics helps companies find information about what people say about their brand on blogs, social networks, discussion groups and other CGM platforms (Costumer-Generated Media). It is a company that asks its clients the question: "Millions of customers are talking, are you listening?" So again, listen!

Nielsen's activities are not new to me. I've known for years that there are companies using technology to search the web to sell information to other companies about what people say about them on the web. The question is however, how I as a marketing manager working in a sector that can't pay for this kind of information, can build my own strong social media strategy and listen to and learn something about my customers, in an intelligent way? I can't stop asking myself how effective social media as marketing tools actually is for a small or medium sized orgnisation working on a local market. Social Media have to be a great tool for arts and non profit orgnisations since it basically only building on a creative mind, but I can't think of any successful campaigns that have been used on local, limited markets, promoting for example one specific theater or event. Considering all the newsletters and communities I belong to in the arts sector, I am surprised that I can't think of one. I have to go digging!