It would seem that some people have a problem with some of the ways that people tweet, or use twitter in their business. I wouldn’t be posting about it if it wasn’t on the minds of several different people today. It seems everyone has an opinion of how twittering should be done. Just this morning I was following three different conversations between some of my tweeps (and actually one who isn’t but decided to include me in their little expose on “people who use Twitter differently than they do” party.) and some of these conversations were quite interesting.

As with all things, people have opinions. Does it make what you think right or wrong? Well, I do have to say that in some things there are absolutes. There are things that are just right and wrong. But, when it comes to how you converse with people, especially within the confines of your own little network… there are different strokes for different folks.

Social Networking Is About People Not Rules.

When I started this website about social media marketing it was really to do a few things. First,Second, I wanted to expand my network and increase my exposure to people interested in social marketing.

The one thing I did not set out to do is set concrete rules for how you are suppose to do social marketing. Why? Because people are in different areas geographically, socially, financially, and even emotionally to do everything the same way.

So, in social media marketing, as well as any type of marketing there are guidelines to success as opposed to rules to live by. I’ll be the first to admit that sometimes when I’m writing a post about something I say things like, “you must”, or “for success in this you better do that.” However, it’s not meant to be “do or die” type of stuff, more like “do or don’t, either way your results are going to be different. Either more or less.”

Social networking isn’t really about rules. It’s about people; the people you interact with and the people you will be interacting with. Some of the “rules” just won’t apply in some circles.

The Auto Follow Controversy

I really can’t believe this is a controversy. I can’t believe that people are actually upset about this. A few people I look up to, if not highly regard what they say, have a pretty good attitude about this. They have a “ehhh” attitude about the whole thing. I carry the same tune. I could really care less. I’m not really for it or against it, but see it as a good tool if used within a set of guidelines.

So someone auto dm’s (an automatic direct message) me on twitter once I follow them. Big deal. If they have a link in their dm to their website, so what… doesn’t mean I have to visit it. In most cases I don’t. Nothing hurt.

If you don’t like it, then unfollow the person and be done with it. I actually saw a conversation about someone who not only unfollowed, but actually got upset and, in not an appropriate or kind fashion, told the person they were unfollowing because of the auto dm. Which is worse? The auto dm or the inappropriate behavior? Some people really need to grow up.

Acting as Social Media Police

On the one hand, I don’t like confrontations. I really don’t relish the idea of getting into some stupid argument over who is right or wrong over some stupid topic. Social media rules are one of them. So, for the most part I stay out of the fray and let the social media police take care of it.

However, on the other hand, some people who are on the one hand condemning the “social media gurus” are actually acting like the ones they condemn. That really doesn’t sit very well with me. Can’t we all just get along?

I saw a tweet this morning from a new mutual follower that pretty much sums it all up. @TerriZSoloCEO said this in a reply during a very interesting conversation about auto dm’s… “perfect…agreeing to disagree is exactly what I was trying to convey.” One was used auto dm’s, the other doesn’t. But, instead of getting into a stupid argument about it, they talked about it, openly, on twitter, so others could see and make up their own mind.

Guidelines are just that… guides.

I am not trying to stir up any controversy. I am not trying to rankle any feathers. I’m sort of getting things off my chest.

I believe blogs are a great way to journal your thoughts, include people in those thoughts, and start engaging conversations. I don’t believe they should be for “calling people out” or talking bad about others. There just isn’t place for that. Remember, social networking is about people… not about you.

Social networking had guidelines. And guidelines are just that. Guides. And guides for every different situation can tend to be in the eye of the beholder. If something works for me, but doesn’t for you, or you simply don’t like it, then that should be ok.

Let’s network together, learn from each other, and try to help each other instead of tearing people down. That’s social networking. But, that’s just a guideline.

This weekend I bought books on leadership, christian living, basketball coaching, a Seth Godin book, and Twitter Revolution written by Warren Whitlock (@WarrenWhitlock and Deb Micek (@CoachDeb).

This is one of those books that I’ve been meaning to get my hands on, but just never seemed to get around to it. (Sorry Warren and Deb!). Anyway, today I ordered it. I love the content over at TwitterHandbook.com and always try to check out the TwitCastRadio.com broadcast when I have some time free.

The product description via Amazon.com says…

“NO RULES

The revolution is underway. The power of social media lies with the people who use tools like Twitter.com. You decide how to use your power.

Our goal is not to create rules to follow on Twitter. We simply want to give you the best tips, resources and strategies to guide your success on Twitter at an accelerated pace.

Our mission is to help you avoid trial and error as early adopters were forced to endure, and help you participate in one of the greatest communication revolution of our time.

This book was designed to help show everyone from the small business owner to the CEO of a large corporation; from work at home moms to politicians in Washington, DC how they can participate in the fastest growing social network and micro-blogging revolution taking place right now.

Join us on Twitter! “

Twitter Revolution Coming Up

I can’t wait to see for myself what Warren and Deborah have put together. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it as much as Problogger by Darren Rowse and Chris Garrett. And I’ll also be sharing with you my thoughts as I read through it.

So… let the revolution begin.

Darren Rowse wrote about developing a twitter landing page today over at Problogger. I like this idea, which Dareen says he got from Laura Fitton’s (@pistachio) guest post on TwiTip

Twitter can’t be underestimated as to what it means to your overall web presence. How you are seen, perceived, acknowledged, and accepted on Twitter can have a significant impact on your marketing efforts in general.

With that thought in mind, do you have a Twitter landing page?

I don’t. At least not yet.

I’ve spent a little bit of time this morning thinking over this whole Twitter landing page concept and believe it’s a big step towards not only having more people follow you, but can be a major boost to your authenticity.

People are getting more and more skeptical on Twitter. Twitter spammers are springing up everywhere and getting people to follow you back takes a little bit of time. It’s not a given. With a twitter landing page you can help people feel more at ease with you than with just a regular profile link.

What do you think? Check out the twitter landing page post and check out Darren’s page while you’re there.

Thank you Maria for the heads up on that post!

The post that tweet is referring to is called "Twitter Automation, A Terrible Trend " Of course, I had to take a look at what this post had to say and do agree with what Paul has to say. I agree with his consensus that automation is not a good thing.

But… as I stated in my last post I do feel that some automation is ok. As long as you don’t sound spammy, get lazy, and rely on it too much.

There is always, and I can not over emphasize this fact, for personal contact and follow up. For example, if you have an automated direct message saying that you for the follow then you shouldn’t just rely on that to do your job for you. It’s a matter of courtesy to send that person an @reply or another dm with personally thanking them.

The first one is instant so no matter if you’re connected or away that person knows you are taking them seriously. But, that will only last for a little while if they don’t hear from you personally.

Is automation a terrible trend. More than likely.

And it’s for the same reasons that I explained in the TweetLater post . People get lazy and use it for spamming purposes.

TweetLater is like Ping.fm in a way. Ping.fm lets you automate updates to all your social media networking sites with just one update. For some things that’s ok, but for a personal presence you will need to physically visit the place and interact with the people.

Automation is bad no matter where you use it, if…. that’s all you do. But, I believe that a little bit of automation mixed in with a large dose of personal contact is actually helping your productivity.

So, I do agree with Paul is saying , I just don’t think it’s as bad as it sounds.

What do you think?

The Good

Tweetlater is a tool to help you send tweets or direct messages at preset times. That means you don’t have to be connected through Twitter by any of the various means in order to send a tweet. But, is that a good thing?

I have to believe that anything you can do to automate parts of your business, whether it is social or not, is a good thing. But, there needs to be some moderation. Use of anything automated within the social scene is a good thing as long as you can keep it in check and not take away the personal side of it. So… how can TweetLater be good for your twittering?

You can keep in touch with new followers when you’re not online. This is a great way to just send a "Thanks for following" type of direct message to a new follower. I believe that constant contact is essential to success, but you can’t possibly stay online 24 hours a day. For that reason alone TweetLater is useful.

You can have updates posted when you’re not online. Again, following on the keeping in contact theme being able to send updates to Twitter when you’re asleep is invaluable. Just make sure you have something to say or don’t do it. Just don’t have an automatic update at 2 in the morning with something stupid like "Going to the carwash then picking up dry cleaning!" Unless you usually do that at 2 AM. Maybe you could have a special blog post (also set up on an automatic posting) that goes live at that time. Then follow that up with an automatic posting from Tweetlater.

Automated keyword tracking. This is where TweetLater becomes very powerful. You can have TweetLater check out keywords you specify in the public Twitter stream and they will then send you an email with a digest of the tweets containing those keywords.

@Replies Digest. Again, knowledge is very powerful. Knowing all the @replies to your account is a great way to make sure you keep in touch with everyone who is responding to you. TweetLater will keep you updated with a daily email.

TweetLater does have some great things going for it. When used correctly you can have a powerful networking tool at your disposal.

The Bad

Like everything there are some down sides to every good thing. It keeps everything in balance.

Automation is very impersonal. One thing that I don’t really like about automation is that it is impersonal. It goes against everything social media is all about. Social media is about connecting in a personal way in order to get to know each other and be authentic. When you automate your responses it just doesn’t seem that way.

Automation makes you lazy. There is something that marketing with social media costs time. It is an investment that pays back in multiples but it can be something that turns a lot of people off. So, they look for automated tools that is suppose to free up your time in order to do something else. However, it begins to create a mindset where you don’t ever want to put in the time and you begin to get lazy with it.

It can sound spammy. I will be the first to admit that I’m not all that wound up about spam. Sure, I get a lot of it. In a lot of my social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter especially) get quite a few spam notices, updates, and messages. I just don’t get all that upset about it. That doesn’t mean a lot of people don’t. And there is a good reason. It takes time to sift through it and delete it. TweetLater could come off sounding spammy if all you do is say hello and include a link back to some product or website.

So, what do you do about TweetLater?

For me, it’s a question of how to use it rather than should you. I am in the opinion that it doesn’t hurt to set up some things for automation while you’re still working an social marketing plan to constantly include personal touches. In using TweetLater you could…

1. Set up an automated direct message for new followers thanking them for following you. No links included.
2. Follow up with a personal @reply to them as soon as you are online.
3. Set up a few tweets for late at night with a question, poll, or helpful link that could be used by your followers.
4. Keep track of certain keywords and either reply to the tweeter or retweet it.

There you go. TweetLater use that is both automated and personal. I suggest you give it a try as long as you can keep your own personal touches to Twitter.

Blogging.

Blogging can be called social media, or social networking, because it enables the owner of the blog to do a few things. Connect with readers in a more personal way, socialize through blog networks, and even meet other bloggers at blogging type events. Blogging was social media before social media became cool.

Blogging as Social Media Networking

Social media networking is usually connected with websites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or MySpace. Websites, like blogs, are not usually counted among the social aspect. However, as I just said there are some social networking aspects to blogs.

Community. I feel the biggest idea, or principle, that has come out of all the new social media marketing stuff is the idea that community is powerful. When you can align yourself with a wide circle of “friends”, and engage in meaningful, and beneficial, conversations with them you are building a community. This community helps you in several ways.

Marketing your products and services through word of mouth by your blogs readers.

Link back to your website, blog, or landing pages from your communities blogs.

Free traffic by leaving comments on blogs you frequent.

Added income by selling your services and products from other bloggers recommendations.

Priceless exposure of your brand.

Friendships that transcend distance.

Mutual Help. It’s amazing the people you can come into contact with through websites like Facebook or Twitter. I’ve met literally hundreds of people who do the type of things that I need help with. When I have a question, need work done, or have a client who needs help… I know who to go to.

Blogging does the same thing. Through comments left on your blog you can begin visiting other websites and, as an added benefit, begin building your online rolodex of other service providers. Through comments left on my blogs I have also met up with people who I can recommend or use myself for other projects. Likewise, once a relationship is started and you are connecting, they will also come to you when they need something or need a product to recommend.

People Contact. One of the things about online marketing is that it can become a very solitary, lonely existence. You get up in the morning (or afternoon depending on what time you got to bed the night before) and sit at the computer for a day of keeping up with newsworthy items to blog about. The comments that are left, and the interaction that develops from it, creates a way for human (kind of) contact. While it may be through email, IM, or Skype at first, it can turn into great relationships with meetups at events and other gatherings.

Wide Variety For Stimulation. Blogs bring stimulation of the mind. And the immense variety of blogs contributes a great deal to that stimulation. My Google Reader is full of blogs that cover everything from sports, news, homeschooling, movies, bodybuilding, blogging, and social media. There are currently over 800 RSS feeds that I keep track of and I am adding new ones all the time. I don’t necessarily read each entry ( I hit the “Mark All As Read” button a lot), but I do try to spend time through the day skimming headlines. This helps kick the brain cells in gear and helps me with topics and newsworthy items.

Social Media With Blogging

The two go hand in hand.

Social media needs a central hub. A base of operations so to speak. A place where everything comes together for an ends to the time spent with social networking. A blog, or blogs, is the perfect place.

Perfect place for people to know who the heck you are. Your About Me page is a great place where people who want to know more about you can do so with a little more information than a little blurb in a bio or profile.

Use that page as the basis for entry into your social media activities.

Perfect place to establish reputation. When people “friend” or “follow” you they will want to know more about what you do, or what you can do. Where can they find that out? Your blog.

What will usually happen is that the new friend will read through your posts, get to know who you are, and feel comfortable with you and your networking.

Perfect place for listing all your social networks. You can pretty much list a lot of your social networks in several places. Sites like FriendFeed, SocialMedian, and SecondBrain allow you to do that. But, a blog allows you to be able to put all your social networking activity in once place where people can see every place they can connect with you without having to search several different sites.

How does your blog fit into your social media activities?

What do you think? How does your blog fit into your social media activities? How do you use the two in your marketing efforts? Leave a comment below and lets get the conversation started.

A way to monetize with Twitter has been developed by a European company called Magpie. The idea is much like that of ads showing up in blog posts. You give permission to Magpie to gain access to your Twitter account and they in turn pay you when they tweet an ad that advertisers pay them for.

At first thought I was a little, no… make that very skeptical of such a thing. But, the more I think about it and check out in my own Twitter timeline just how intrusive it is, I have decided to give it a try. The set up is painless and incredibly quick.

Magpie Setup For Twitter Cash

The first thing is to get a quick estimate of how much you could possible earn with Magpie. From there you give Magpie your Twitter password and you’re rockin’.

Once Magpie has access you can then set up what intervals you would like the Magpie adds to show. You can choose to have them sent out every other tweet or in between every twenty tweets. There are also other options like after every five, or ten, tweets. I think this will really help with the number of Magpie tweetads that show up.

It’s easy to distinguish the Magpie tweets from the regular tweets also as each one will begin with #magpie . From the estimates that Magpie gave me, it seems that you can probably make $400 to $500 (USD) a month if you are a heavy user and have a good sized following.

But… is Magpie Going To Be A Good Thing?

Only time will tell. I am trying it out right now on a trial basis to see if I begin to lose followers because of it. I’m a little worried that people (spammers) will crawl all over this and inundate Twitter with a bunch of useless tweets just to get to the #magpie. Or, regular Twitter users will begin to drastically increase their own Twitter use for the same reason, thus causing Magpie to go bankrupt or out of business.

I’m sure that there are going to be people who will be pretty upset about this and will unfollow those who sign up for this revenue stream. I even thought that too when I first found out about it. However, if things are kept to a 20 tweet per 1 ad ratio I don’t see how that could be all that intrusive.

But, like I said… time will tell.

Social media marketing is, of course, more important than breathing.

Seriously, in today’s online marketing world, if you are not utilizing the powerful medium that is social media you are on life support until someone decides to pull the plug. With that in mind, there are a few things, well… ten things, that you absolutely, positively must do.

Social Media "Do’s"

1.) Be real. You don’t have to try and be someone that you’re not. You are into social media to grow your network, meet interesting people, and be involved. So, you don’t have to try and hide behind a great than life persona. Whatever you share make sure it’s you and from your heart.

2.) Be involved. It really doesn’t do any good to market your website if you just create an account and put up a quick profile at each social marketing website. You must be actively engaged with the people you are following or friending. This is something I have learned the hard way.

I made the mistake of believing that an account at Ping.fm would help me update all my social media websites. What it did was actually alienate me and put up a wall. I have been working to tear down that wall and become more active on each of the websites. You should learn from my mistake. Don’t try to automate everything. Be involved and active with each of the sites, and each of your friends.

3.) Have a plan for your social activity. There is no way you will be able to keep track of all your social networking and activity if you do not have a social plan. Let me repeat that…. there is no way you will EVER be able to keep track of all your social networking and activity if you do not have a social plan. I can not emphasize that enough.

4.) Have fun with it! I love social media. I think it’s absolutely amazing. However, I don’t think I would like it so much if it felt too much like work. Yes, I have a schedule to make sure that tasks get completed, but I have fun doing it. It’s fun to reply on Twitter. It’s fun to write on someone’s wall and encourage them. It’s fun to update with funny little posts. I don’t want social media to begin feeling like a job.

A lot of people are just plain boring. They don’t add any applications to their Facebook account, only have an account at Twitter disregarding any other micro blog sites, and unfollow people at the drop of a hat. That’s too restricting. Open up a little and have some fun.

5.) Interlink as much as possible. Great you have a Facebook account. Now you can add the Twitter application which connects the two and updates Facebook automatically when you post to Twitter. That’s what I call interlinking. Think of it as a wheel with a bunch of different spokes. Each one is connected to the middle hub, but are a little different in their own right. Choose a main hub. Could be our blog or a social network like Facebook. Then start interlinking… connecting each one together with the main hub, and each other, as much as you can.

6.) Take advantage of third party applications to help you save time. Yes, it takes a lot of time to keep up with each social network and update consistently. Even monitoring each one, even with a FriendFeed account, can take up time. That’s where the abundance of third party applications come in handy. Most are built using Adobe AIR and can be used right from your desktop.
Applications like Twhirl, Tweetdeck, and Facedesk are great ways to keep things updated without actually visiting each site.

7.) Remember that you’re dealing with people and not robots. When writing articles and website content you can get away with using a keyword a few times at the beginning, middle, and end to help with search engine rankings. People know that and when they read and article, or visit your website, they tend to accept it. However, don’t think that will work on your social networks. Treat people like what they are…. real people. They are not robots, but actual people who could be interested in what you have to offer.

8.) Give More Than You Receive. One of the biggest temptations of social networking is to put things on autopilot and just update with blog posts, new ezine issues, latest affiliate product, or newest service. Really, we’re only doing what we’ve been trained to do. For years the cry has been “automation, automation, automation!”, while you go about doing other things. Social media should never be automatic.

With that in mind, one of the things to remember is to always be looking for ways that you can *give* as opposed to receiving. Try to give answers to questions, links to relevant websites (not your own), solutions to problems, encouragement and praise, and perhaps even mentions of what other people are doing, and connecting others together. Doing this shows that you’re not just there to “get”. You’re there to be a functional part of the community.

9.) Do unto others as you would have done unto you. I have a personal policy that when someone follows me at any of the different social networking websites I will also follow them. It really doesn’t matter if I know them or not. I still follow.

This is a personal preference, but I do feel it’s very important to your overall marketing efforts. There are those that don’t feel its necessary to follow everyone and attribute it to some reason or another. However, I think they are missing out. The opportunities that are lost by not following people is tremendous. Each new person means a new idea, a possible partner, a possible new client.

Now, there is another side to this also. When you follow, or friend, someone you would like them to also respond in kind. After all, how can you build a community if everything is all one sided?

10.) Be consistent. I have to admit that this one has been my problem as of late. Life has a way of getting in the way and, even though we have the best intentions, some things have to give way. However, it doesn’t make being consistent any less important.

Staying consistent is the only way that you will be able to keep your name, your brand, your website in front of the people who decided to follow you, or friend you, in the first place. Staying consistent isn’t one dimensional either. There are many facets to consistency in your social marketing.

Social Media Is More Than A To Do List

What I hope you’ve been able to see through this list of “Do’s” is that marketing with social media is more than just a long list of to-do items. It’s about your interaction within your social media circles.

When you enter into social marketing with the mindset that if you do this and that then you’re going to see amazing results, you’ll see a much different picture unfold. However, when you are a real person, who gives more, and interacts on a consistent basis you’ll see increased traffic and loyal customers.

Give these “do’s” a try. Let me know how things are progressing.

Are you suppose to join every one? Do you have to set up a new profile in over 3,000 websites? When can you ever find the time to keep up each network?

The good news is that a lot of those 3,000 are focused niche networking sites. For example, if you’re not into real estate you probably wouldn’t want to join a real estate agent networking website. By focusing on your niche you can really narrow the scope of the social networks you might be interested in.

However, that could still be quite a large number. Should you join each one in your niche? You could possibly be looking at hundreds of websites where you feel obligated to set up an account and post regularly to. Way too much. You’d never have the time to keep up with each one. And you’d definitely never have a life. I’m sure your family would love you.

Ten Social Media Sites Everyone Should Be Actively Engaged In

So what do you do? You start out small and work your way up.

Social media can be extremely broad in scope and it can be very focused. You can join websites that cater to everything under the sun, and/or you could join networks that only deal with very focused niches. Either way you’re plugged in. But, for maximum effectiveness I would have to go with a little bit of both. But, where do you start? What networks should you be a part of?

Here’s ten that I think are essential no matter what your niche is.

1. Facebook. Probably the most important of all of the social networking websites. At least in my humble opinion. There is just too much you can do here to establish your identity, brand, and expertise.

2. Twitter. Without a doubt, Twitter has revolutionized the way that social networking is done. It’s quick, clean, and immediate. In fact, the power of Twitter is so powerful that some have been wanting to ban the use of it. In a networking sense, Twitter is only surpassed by Facebook in effectiveness.

3. LinkedIn. The last of what I call the ‘Big Three’, LinkedIn is a great way to connect with people in the same niche as well as find others who do work you might need.

4. FriendFeed. I really like what is going on over at the social media aggregator Friendfeed. It’s a great concept that enables you to keep track of what’s going on at a bunch of other networks without actually visiting them. I follow people who have their Twitter updates, Plurk updates, blog posts, things they’ve shared on Google, Tumblr, YouTube and other social feeds and I don’t have to visit them. It’s all in once place. It’s also integrated into Facebook which keeps your Facebook friends tapped into what you’re doing.

5. YouTube. Not your typical social media website, but a very powerful one. I haven’t really dabbled into video yet (although there really isn’t any excuse anymore with the cost of cameras like the Flip Video Mino Series Camcorder) I still believe that YouTube is integral to social media marketing. The videos at YouTube help you enter into conversations with the people who make them. When you subscribe to someone’s video, friend them on Facebook or Twitter, then you have something you praise them for or use as a means of an introduction.

6. StumbleUpon. This social bookmarking site is a great way to get to know people who are interested in the same things that you are. It’s also a great way to get people to see your website and even “stumble” your pages. If you’re not spending at least an hour a week working with StumbleUpon you’re missing out on a lot of traffic and social networking.

7. Google Reader. At first glance you would not think that Google Reader is much of a social networking site. However, you can share items from your reader with friends and they, in turn, can share items with you. This is powerful in the fact that you are now able to get more information without actually subscribing to more feeds.

8. SocialMedian. Another website that is a little like StumbleUpon as far as bookmarking goes. Instead of stumbling a site, you “clip” articles that you like so that your followers will see them and be able to clip them also or just read them.

9. Digg. The last couple of social media sites have been those where you share information in the form of sharing, stumbling or clipping. Digg is not that much different, but is still essential. Digg users are fanatic about digging websites and if you digg for them, they will digg for you. A front page listing on Digg can mean thousands of hits to your website.

10. MyBlogLog. Let’s face it. Everyone is blogging. Social media actually got started because of blogging. If you really want to be technical about things, blogging is actually social media networking. You leave comments, you visit other sites, you interlink to other blogs… it’s all a big community. MyBlogLog helps you to be in contact with other bloggers, join their communities, be seen by others, get more traffic. It operates on the same basis as any other site. You find people you want to follow, they follow you back, see your updates, and visit your blog. MyBlogLog is a great way to market your blog and find new ones to follow.

That’s Only The Tip Of The Iceberg

I only listed ten sites that I feel are essential to getting a start in social media marketing. These will help you get your feet wet, try it out, and learn a few things. But, there is so much more out there. I never mentioned Plurk, Disqus, Brightkite, Bloghology, Rejaw, or even MySpace.

You can take a look at those as well, but if you are new to social media, stick to these ten.

With each new day there are thousands of new people, and businesses, wanting to know how they can get their own social networking presence. Some seek out consultants and experts in this area and some decide to try it on their own. Regardless of the direction that you take, there are some ways to make integrating your marketing into social networking that everyone should put into practice.

Set up accounts in the ‘Big Three’

Marketing is all about leveraging your exposure with the return on your investment. In social media the investment isn’t an issue of money, but of time. The question you have to ask yourself is not how much money do you want to spend, but how much time do you want to spend.

In social media circles that means setting up active accounts in what I like to call the ‘Big Three‘. Those being Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Facebook is a social networking site where you can get a lot of exposure by sending, and accepting, friend requests with people within your own topic or industry. There are a lot of options, applications, and ways to stay connected (messages, writing on walls, joining groups, blog networks, etc.).

Twitter is the micro-blog that has completely changed the rules of social networking forever. With Twitter you hold conversations with people through 140 character updates. Not only that, but there is a personal side to Twitter. You get to know people, what they do, what they like, and even what they have for dinner every night. By following people, joining in the conversations with replies and consistent updates, you are building a strong image for yourself and your business. The only way to get started with Twitter is to just jump in and start updating and following.

LinkedIn is an incredible website that I believe (because I am one of them) is very underused. It’s basically a website where you can post who you are and what you do and from there begin interacting with others who are in the same field or need someone of your expertise.

Integrate your marketing into social media by setting up accounts in these three websites. They are all connected and work very well together.

Use A Mix Of Marketing And Personality

If you are looking into social networking for marketing purposes then of course the bottom line is to generate traffic to your website. That doesn’t mean that you flood each of the social websites with a ton of advertisements, group messages, and updates on your newest blog posts. That will get you unfollowed, unfriended, and unconnected in a hurry.

The big attraction of social networking is the social aspect of it. You have people who work at their computers day in and day out with very little outside contact, or at least contact with people who understand what you do for a living, and the social contact is a huge jolt of “I’m not alone!”

Email is one thing, but instant communication is essential on the online world. With email you are expected to send your announcements and ads, but with social media there is a different rule. For example, Facebook has a messaging feature. It’s much like email and you can send a message a few different ways. There is one on one messaging, blast to all friends, and even group messaging. If you were only to contact someone with an impersonal advertising announcement all the time, why would they want to be friends with you? Obviously you’re just taking advantage of the network as another mass broadcast system.

But…. if you were to update regularly with what you’re doing, were sending out personal messages on a one on one basis, actively participating in a few applications, and writing on walls then the occassional advertising messages wouldn’t be so bad. In fact, I might want to see them.

Add a mixture of personality in with the marketing. Be a person not a robot.

Add Relevant Content On A Consistent Basis

Before social media marketing articles were the powerhouse of internet marketing. They still have their place and can bring a tremendous amount of traffic to a website, but the power lies in what the article is all about. Information. Or more to the point… relevant content.

When piecing together your online marketing with social networking it is a big mistake to overlook the power of providing relevant content. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are integral to this and provide great ways to do it.

Facebook

Facebook is probably the most effective way to do this because you can configure it to work with the other social sites and has several great applications for you to add content.

These are just a few of the ways you can use Facebook to provide information. Get started with these and then spend some time searching for others.

Twitter

Twitter is just twitter. You have 140 characters to use. You wouldn’t think that would be enough to add relevant content, but it is. The thing I like is that there isn’t any room for fluff. You say what you have to say and no more. You can provide content to Twitter by;

Relevant content can be done in Twitter.

Are You Integrating Your Marketing Into Social Networking?

If you have been using social media, or are just beginning to think about it, you can get a good start by using these three little tips. Sign up for Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Be personable as well as marketable. And provide relevant content on a consistent basis.

If you just do those you will be well on your way to the beginnings of a successful social networking marketing campaign.