It’s not surprising that social media has become so popular in so short a time. Not only is it a source of entertainment for most people, it is also the newest strategy for acquiring customers for businesses. And with hot new tools like Twitter, social media marketing has only become more progressive and popular!

What Is Twitter?

In case you’re not familiar with Twitter, it is a social media tool that allows people to know what their fellow twitterers (people using twitter) are doing at this very moment.

Are you getting ready for bed? Put that on Twitter! Are you buying a new couch or writing a report on the effects of social media marketing? Put that on Twitter! Are you throwing a birthday party for your golden retriever? Well, you can put that on Twitter as well. There are no boundaries as to what you can put on Twitter. In Twitter, even the most mundane updates about your life can be pretty liberating. 

Sounds simple, right? Perhaps, it is this simplicity that has made Twitter quite a sensation on the Internet. There’s also something amusing about knowing what other people are doing and letting them know your own business as well. This combination of fun and simplicity is what ultimately appeals to Twitter fans.

Applying Twitter In Business

If you’re business-minded, then you probably already have more than a few ideas on how to make this social media marketing tool work for you. Having a Twitter account allows you to inform your clients and would-be clients the progress in your company. You’re not putting up an ad every week (because that tends to be annoying). However, you get the chance to share with them what’s happening to your company’s products, people, tools, etc. right now. 

Twitter, unlike MySpace and Facebook, poses an advantage for new and advanced marketers. As an efficient social media marketing tool, Twitter allows you to build a giant list of followers. It allows your clients and subscribers to see what you’re doing right now. It gives them access to your immediate profile and permits you to share your ideas with other twitterers. All free of charge.

How Twitter Can Explode Your Profits

While many people have other purposes and values for the use of the free service, the marketer can use Twitter to jumpstart a list of followers that can grow into thousands.

If you’re someone who sells used cars, you can use Twitter to attract members who are interested in automobiles. When a new shipment comes in, you can use Twitter to announce that the latest Ford model has arrived. Or if you’re having a sale, you can use Twitter to let everybody know about it.

These followers are the next best thing to customers. If they haven’t bought anything from you yet, then you can rest assured that they will be buying something soon. As long as you keep providing them something nice to look forward to, they will always be enticed to purchase something from your company.

Think of it as fishing. You already have the fish interested in your bait. All you have to do is wait for the fish to bite. According to quantcast.com, Twitter reaches about 6.1 million U.S. people every month. This social media tool has also reached other countries and is hugely popular in Japan. In fact, there are other Twitter-like applications that have popped up due to its insane fame!

Despite the huge popularity of Twitter, it is not a disorganized system that doesn’t have any limits. For example, you can only send 1,000 updates, 100 API requests and send 250 direct messages each day. And while there is no limit to the people who can follow you, the same freedom doesn’t apply vice-versa.

The maximum number of people you can follow is limited to 2,000. In Twitter-speak, to follow means to receive Twitter updates. This limit will only be lifted if you manage to attract more than 2,000 followers to your account.

According to Twitter, this is done to prevent SPAM users from adding up into their system and to prevent abuse from all current members.

It’s not that difficult to attract more followers into your account. In the long run, this will only make your Twitter account more meaningful because of the effort you’ve put into it.

The beauty at this stage is that once you are at such a level, it’s easier to attract new followers into your account. The benefits from taking such steps are acquiring your own list of eager followers (in which you can pitch your own products and services); and more importantly, gaining new business contacts.

Other Social Media Marketing Methods

There are other methods of social media marketing available for your use. Twitter isn’t the only way to enhance your business and get a constant flow of leads.

Other methods you can explore include:

1) Blogs

2) Community forums

3) Social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn.

4) Video-sharing sites such as Youtube, Metacafe, Google videos, Yahoo videos, and AOL videos.

5) Content sharing sites such as Squidoo, Hubpages, Wetpaint, Qassia, and Google Knol.

These days, you shouldn’t just limit yourself to one thing. With the Internet as vast as it is, you should use every opportunity to make new contacts and establish yourself. Besides, think of all the new things you can learn from interacting with other people online!

Leave comments on your choice blogs and participate in forum discussions that allow for signature files after every post.  Make informative videos and upload them to video-sharing sites.  Explode your list of contacts through social networking sites. Share your knowledge and be recognized as an authority by submitting your content to content-sharing sites.

Not only will these help you establish credibility, you probably won’t even have to worry or stress about making money in the future. Remember that social media marketing, like any other marketing methods, works if you work it! Now like many of our mentors say – get to work!

The social media marketing niche is full of hype pipers and hope dopes. Everyday I get a “product launch” email touting the latest Wordpress plugin, software app or marketing system, promising BIG traffic or quit-your-day-job ROI.

If you have been around (the internet marketing scene) for even a few months you’ll know just what I am talking about. I am at the point where I am more interested in the way the product is being marketed than what the prodcut is.

I have settled in to a few (mostly free) web 2.0 tools that make my social media marketing work.

So, shut up and tell you what they are already, right? Got it…

VIDEO SYNDICATION

The big gun in video submission is, of course, Traffic Geyser. This is a great service and, besides taking hours to set up and being priced on the high end, works very well at getting you and your silly videos plastered all over the web. However, recently I stumbled upon a free video submission service called TubeMogul that I like quite well, thank you very much.

TubeMogul allows for automated submission to the 12 big video sites all at once. The interface is super-simple. It allows you to add a title, description, tags and category setting to you video. And you can upload as many videos as you want for nada (FREE!).

Check it out at TubeMogul.com.

SOCIAL MEDIA SUBMITTING AND BOOKMARKING

Some of the new folks get confused here so let me briefly explain… Social media marketing calls for lots of “submitting”. One of the mainstays is submitting your post (your story, your article  whatever you call your content) to a social media site.

There are really 2 types of sites for post submission. There’s the social bookmarking sites like del.icio.us and technorati which just want you to primarily submit a link and tag. There’s not much voting or browsing of these “bookmarks” going on after you submit.

Then there’s the social news sites like Digg and Propeller. These sites want your link and tags also but you will also need to provide a good description of you post and hope that other vote it up.

So, with that out of the way… On to the freebie.

I have used a few of the paid tools out there to automatically submit to both the social bookmarking sites and the social news sites and, in my opinion, the free tool at SocialMarker.com works better than all of them. You just input your post data, check the sites you want to submit to and arrow through the submissions. “That was easy!”

KEYWORD RESEARCH

Yes, I still do keyword research, I think it is important to keep track of your main keywords and look for variations as new topics come up. I use the free tool from the giant keyword service called Keyword Discovery. The free tool works great for bloggers who are not building 10,000 word PPC campaigns.

IMAGE EDITING

By far, the service I use the most is picnik.com. I always have to crop, resize, fix, etc. the images I need to use. This online editor makes it quick and easy.

VIDEO CAPTURE AND EDITING

Well, this may be a bit advanced for the new folks but just in case you are ready to stick your toes into the video pond, here’s a couple of free tools you’ll need.

First, you will need a good screen capture software. I like the tools from TechSmith, either Camtasia (V3 is free right now) or JingProject.

Once you have you fancy screen capture then head over to Jumpcut.com and start editing. This is an awesome free online editing software that should cost big bucks.

So, there you have it…

The list is not long but, trust me, these free tools will get you f-a-a-a-r in your social media marketing endeavors.

You can try lots of other similar free marketing software, tools and systems; there is an endless number of them that’s for sure.

This is what has worked (and continues to work) for me. Enjoy!

Social Media Marketing is marketing through social media networks and online communities. Social Media networks generally attract a lot of users. They are online platforms where users share thoughts, discuss ideas and interact with each other on a variety of subjects. Social Media is a meeting of minds where everything is user-generated. The user gains prominence in a social media network. His ideas, thoughts and opinions gain utmost value and importance. Social Media is the easiest route to reach the customers.

Social Media Marketing is a type of internet marketing which leads to achieve branding and marketing goals through participation in various social media networks such as Orkut, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Hi5 etc. Social Media includes websites where news, photos and videos are user-generated. Many innovative and interesting social media networks mushroom in the online world everyday. Sites like StumbleUpon, Digg, Furl, Reddit, Del.ici.ous and others are social bookmarking sites where users bookmark their favorite web pages and share with others information about web pages which they find interesting or useful. All these websites include certain mechanisms to allow users to vote for the content submitted by the other users. Through this, a particular content’s popularity is gauged.

On the other hand, Social Media Marketing is also a vibrant marketing strategy for marketing your site. You can manage the creation and distribution of content through the social media easily and effectively. Social Media is the latest kind of viral marketing. Messages sent through social media reach customers quickly. There is also no fear of the message being twisted or misinterpreted in the process. Moreover, in Social Media Marketing, you can expect a great inflow of comments/critiques and reactions for your marketing messages. In a way, all these will help you know the expectations of your customers. It is indeed a step in gauging customer psychometrics.

Social Media Marketing is the most popular upcoming marketing concept of the dotcom world. There are various marketing techniques which are very closely related to social media marketing, such as Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, and Social Media Optimization. Social media sites provide a huge variety of subjects, topics, and discussions to choose from. A social media web site can be defined as a common ground, where individuals gather together to share their views and opinions. Social media has also adapted various mediums such as audio, video, and textual mediums. There are few guidelines in order to successfully implement social media marketing. Improve the ability of your website, so that it can be linked to other sites easily. All the incoming links are unique, so treat them properly by providing dedicated space for them.

In order to be successful at social media, the following steps can also be very useful. First, create forums on your own web site. Provide interesting topics so that people would like to participate and interact with each other through your site. Keep updating information and news to attract your visitors. Compose podcasts and use the clips to promote your products.

Social Media Marketing gives exposure for your site in a larger site or amidst a larger group of people. Use the social media in the best way possible and gain results.