Maybe you are wondering why you should succumb to the newest internet hype of social marketing. Some conformists believe it's important to run with the flock. Most often (not always) it is. How else are your customers going to find you? As you know, making changes to your website helped your search engine optimization. Nowadays portable files like PDFs and video files are submitted to social networking sites where the content fits in to help your content's visibility.



Web 2.0 and social media marketing is about people connecting with each other through social media sites (digg, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Stumbleupon, del.icio.us). These would be among the best known ones today.

How does Social Bookmarking Work?

Bookmarking has become a form of socialization that can be valuable to your bottom line by simply storing and sharing links with your online networks. Identifying and saving the page to which you would like to attract more traffic. Social bookmarking sites include del.icio.us, ma.gnolia.com and My Yahoo.

Why share my Photos?

Websites like Picasa, Flickr and Photobucket make it easy to share and enjoy our photos online. It is a great way to see the rest of the world and get to know people from across the world, and link to each other's photos.

Why share my Videos?

Sharing videos is similar to sharing photos. Sites like YouTube give users the opportunity to copy and paste a code to share on their blogs and websites to complement their content.

Tips to help your Social Marketing Optimization

-Put an hour a day aside to investigate new things on the internet. Make sure you put it into you diary so you don't forget.

-Join some of the more popular social networking sites like reddit, twitter and digg. Become a part of the community and understand what material suits which one before you start posting your own content, or you run the risk of being seen as a spammer.

-Now is the time to get a blog if you do not already have one. Set it up and add quality content. Join the blogging networks and add their buttons to your blog. This will help to generate links and more traffic to your blog and websites.

-Interact with your audience; make friends, join groups that you have common interests with; even start your own network. Build a reputation for supplying credible information.

-Once you get the hang of this - branch out. Keep an eye for sites that compliment your site or visa versa. An example would be a photographer should look to art and photography related sites to work with and exchange comments. This is where your information will be of more value than on the larger, more general websites.

-To keep up with the latest social networking and web 2 marketing strategies join a community of specialists.

-Join a remote blogging site so you can put content there you don't want on your main page. It also acts as another incoming link to your main page.

-Don't be complacent. It is important to track the results of your strategies. Be realistic. You need to know what works and what doesn't so you don't waste valuable time on tactics that don't work.

These are just a few of the things you can use to get your website noticed; gaining awareness from people you would like to have as visitors.