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A very wise person once said that if you want people to know you’re smart then give away some free samples. And that’s exactly what social media is allowing agencies to do.

Here are a few quick ways to show potential customers something about your thinking and your agency.

Write a White Paper -White papers are a great way to show off what you know. Choose a subject you know best, and write it to show how your agency solved an important problem for a client with this knowledge. Publish the paper on your site, and also on other industry sites and in professional publications that clients read.

Build a Presence on Twitter -Twitter is a micro-blogging site that allows you to send out 140 character tweets to a chosen list of recipients. The trick to Twitter is two-fold: building your list of followers and then saying something relevant to them. Don’t just talk about you; offer links to blogs and articles that show your thinking, and dedication to keeping current with your craft.

Write a Blog -More companies are blogging now, recognizing that it’s a great way to give them a more human face. Blogs for advertising agencies have become another place to show off what you know, and talk about what you think. Your blog can be written by a specific person, like your CEO or CCO, or by a collection of employees from different disciplines. Just make sure that the voice is that of a person and not a corporation.

More Public Relations -Take advantage of all of the free digital media to get your agency’s name out there. Send out press releases when you have something newsworthy, comment regularly on industry sites, and make sure that you are featured prominently on high profile agency sites, like this one, for instance.

Champion a Cause -Pro bono clients are a great way to give something back to the community, help put some marketing muscle behind a good cause, and generate some free publicity at the same time. Look for opportunities in issues you care about, solicit your staff for causes they’d like to work on, and make it known to the community-at-large that you are open to doing cause-related work.

Log Off and Get Out - Last but not least is the original form of social marketing — meeting the public. Encourage your staff to make themselves available for public speaking. Choose a topic that people want to know more about and offer yourself up as a speaker at local meetings of professionals. There’s still no replacement for face-to-face interactions and the relationships that are built from experiences.