Today’s online social media have replaced yesterday’s “schmoozing” at social events to boost your business. Whether you have a physical store or a virtual business, it’s imperative that you venture into social media in order to keep up with the competition.Social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube are fantastic places to advertise. The best part? Free, free, free! Well, you have to account for your time spent, but once you get the hang of “twittering” or “squidooing” you might find social media to be quite fun!

The entertainment world has certainly made use of social media. Musicians truly had to adapt to digital downloads over the last decade and find ways to boost their income through concert ticket sales and merchandizing.

A great way to do this was to make themselves more available to their fans via social media such as MySpace. By posting recent events, personal video messages and tour journals, their fans are more likely to stay engaged with the band and continue to see concerts, even spending big bucks to buy special “fan only” VIP packages.

The musicians gain valuable information from their fans such as what worked and what didn’t work at the last concert, or what the fans liked most about their recent album. They are “controlling their reputation” by paying close attention to what their fans desire. They get the word out about their concerts and build excitement for CD debuts and tour announcements. They can sell their own merchandise and reap a greater profit because they cut the middle guy out of the picture without sacrificing precious time.

What can social media marketing do for your business?

Personalization of Your Business

Whatever your business is, you will be a step above the competition if your customers like you. If they don’t know you at all (i.e. faceless, nameless owner of online company), you’ve given up a potential for sales. We like to know people. Think about the last time you went out for dinner. Did the owner or manager greet you? Did he or she stop by your table? When owners and managers show interest in their customers, the customers feel special and they are less likely to choose another establishment.

Make sure you upload your picture and perhaps a few photos of your family or your favourite activities. Be frank and creative in your “about me” section. Interact with your viewers using comment sections.

Driving Traffic/ Controlling Your Listings

You can drive more traffic to your website through social media marketing by placing links to your site and others using the bookmark/favourite function. Now, some sites such as Facebook have automatic “no-follow” links as a response to spammers, but these still can work to your advantage if you continue to grow your friends list and upload links (with keywords of course) as often as possible. Some sites have “do-follow” links and these will convert to click-throughs instantly.

Controlling your listings becomes possible without the need for multiple company websites. When you type in relevant searches and your business pops up on page one, that’s fantastic, but it’s not as good as it gets. Using social media can boost your chances of receiving more listings on the search engine page and eliminate some of the choice that your potential customers have. Instead of competing with several other listings on page one, you may have five of your own listings on the same page!

Controlling Your Online Reputation

By putting more information about your company or services, you have a bigger influence on what will be said about your company. You begin branding your name and getting the word out. It may be frightening to think that you may receive negative comments, but those comments will pop up somewhere, so isn’t it best to be aware of them and control them by addressing the situation?

Keep your content fresh and engaging and be sure to keep up with the comments as much as possible.

Where Do You Get Started?

Some of the more popular sites for social media marketing are:

• Facebook
• MySpace
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Flickr
• Mashable
• MyBlogLog
• StumbleUpon
• Technorati

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