The people that you know can be channeled into greater popularity for your website if you know how. Just think about all of the people that you know; all you business connections, your personal friends and more to the point for the purposes of this article, the people you know through social networking online. This can mean increased traffic, free promotion and best of all, paying customers. Read on to learn how:

Offer content which will be interesting or useful to visitors.

One thing that will net you more connections is having content which informs or entertains. Good content, the kind that holds people's attention will get you free word-of-mouth (or perhaps word-of-mouse, these days) advertising.

Content which offers something to readers is in high demand on social networking sites in particular and the web in general. Content is what people go to the internet for in the first place. If you want to drive traffic to your site (and who doesn't?) then make yourself an attraction to social media users by giving them irresistible content.

Make your content useful.

Original and interesting content is a start, but your target viewers need a way to find this content. If you can be found quickly, you're much more likely to reach a large audience. If you have articles as part of your content, make sure that they are search engine optimized so that they can easily be found by a search engine.

Make your web presence larger.

Did you have a hit with one article? Did this drive more traffic to your site? Don't stop with one and rest on your laurels. You can build an audience by frequently adding new content to social media sites. Make sure people see you as a source of consistently great content.

If you do this, you will generate buzz every time you submit new content. Once you've established yourself as a known quantity on the social media scene, your target audience will visit your site more often and even seek your site out for its own sake.

Promote your site and your content. Build a brand.

Always, always, always promote yourself. When you have new content available, send out email to your target audience informing them of it. Mention new content in articles you submit, your podcast (if you do one) - anywhere you can promote your content, do it! One word of caution though: do this with tact. Social networks and their users will regard you with suspicion if you are always coming on as a hard sell type.

Encourage communication.

While people like the relative anonymity of the web, they also enjoy communicating with others from the online world. Give them a way to do that - surveys, feedback forms, comment forms, even forums will be appreciated by visitors to your site.

Social media as a method of driving traffic to a site can take a lot of work. If done properly, however, it can be a very cheap way of brand building and generally making people aware of a website. Social media can be a great resource for promotion; don't be afraid to explore its possibilities for your website.