Social media is changing how not only how we keep in touch with old classmates, but also how we advertise and promote our business. It allows marketers to create a relationship with prospects before pouring a business down their throat. This is something, as a prospect, is a much friendlier version of selling. From sites like Delicious to MySpace, there are endless possibilities are generated additional free traffic.



However, two sites in particular will let businesses be businesses and jump on the social media trend: - Facebook

- Twitter

Let me give you a quick overview of how to use both.

Facebook: Facebook doesn't promote their profiles for business very much, but it's absolutely available. You'll find it at http://www.Facebook.com/business:

Facebook lets you create ads that will show up when people are browsing Facebook to connect with their friends. But you'll have to pay for that, either when people click your ads or when the ads show up, up to the limit of your daily budget. The free option is to create a Facebook page for your business.

This is similar to what an individual does when he creates a Facebook page for himself, except you're creating a page for your business. Then people can become a "fan" of your page and tell their friends about it. With over 53 million Facebook users out there, this can be some powerful word-of-mouth advertising. It's easy to create a page for your business, and like I said, it's free. Click the Create a Facebook Page button and you can walk through the very simple page creation wizard. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:

- You don't have to cater to people under 25. The fastest growing Facebook demographic are users 25 and over. There are a variety of professionals, both young and not so young. It's not just about kids discussing teen television dramas.

- The key is getting fans. This isn't hard to do. Before you set up your business page, you'll want to get yourself a personal account, if you haven't already done so. When you set up your page, you'll become its first fan...and your Facebook friends will see a message on their home page that you just became a fan of your business page. They might check it out, tell some of their friends, and then you're off to the races! I would show you a video for this but unfortunately you actually have to create a real business page when you walk through the wizard, and I don't want to create a junk page. Don't worry though, it's a very simple process to create a page, and the Facebook help is pretty good.

Twitter: Twitter admittedly sounds like a silly idea...you sign up for a free account, then other people start "following you" on Twitter, meaning they'll be updated when you make a Twitter post. If you talk about what you're doing in your business, your followers will get updates about your business! Joining Twitter is simpler than signing up for web based email. It's simple and free.

Click the "Join" Button! button to sign up. Once you're signed up, all you have to do is sign in and type short messages (140 characters or less) that you want your followers to see. Really, it's that simple. So what's this mean for your business? Simple. What this means is that everyone following up gets updated what you're doing, whether you updated your blog, you've published an article or you've taken your business to the next level. You can include links to your site or blog in your Twitter posts, so people can head right there...and give you free traffic.

As with most social media marketing, the key is getting contacts. In the case of Twitter, that means getting people to follow you on Twitter. Here's a quick way to do it:

- Put an invitation on your blog for people to follow you on Twitter so they can get a quick notification whenever your blog gets updated (that's convenient for them)

- Make your online presence known in forums, Facebook or any other online outlet

- Offer helpful information on your blog and update your Twitter followers every time you post. That's all there is to it.

Twitter is really a buzz-building tool. You don't do much direct marketing there (with only 140 characters per message, it's tough to say too much), but keeping people informed can keep your traffic flowing.