Online social media sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo and Twitter are among the most popular social web networks for modern day socialites. Social media memberships continue to grow in popularity in all demographics, especially among teens and young adults. Whether you are one of the millions of users that use a social media site to keep in touch with friends and relatives, or a professional looking for work, there are numerous advantages of becoming a member of a social media outlet.

Facebook and Bebo rank first and third, respectively, among teenagers 13 years old and up. MySpace, ranking second, requires members to be 14 and older to become a member. Perhaps these social media sites are so popular among teens because it’s free fun and entertainment! With access to a computer and Internet access, members are just a mouse click away from connecting with friends, sharing favorite pictures and web links, playing games, and of course, engaging in exciting online conversations. Teens can also display their artistic skills by creating a unique personal profile to express personalities and add favorite photos to profile albums.

Although parents should be aware of their child’s online activity, social media sites provide a safe and secure environment for teens. The three networking sites mentioned above are considered to be among the safest. Facebook and MySpace also offer help and support features for newbies just learning to navigate the world of online social media outlets.

Parents also take advantage of free social media sites to stay connected with family members. Whether you have a child away at college or your siblings live in a different state, it’s easy to stay in touch by leaving a quick message on your loved one’s profile. Social media websites also allow you to conduct searches for family members that you may have lost contact with, or even a long-lost high school friend or old flame by simply searching by name, school or zip code. For those enjoying a retirement hobby and looking for someone to share particular interests, members have access to thousands of discussion groups to discuss a wide variety of topics.

Although many active members are under the age of 18, unemployed professionals and other career-minded individuals looking for advancement, utilize social networking sites to seek help. With unemployment rates approaching double digits in many states, posting resumes, digital portfolios or videos on Facebook is a practical and proven effective method to land a job! Most social media sites allow members to upload documents, video clips, personalized Website addresses, blogs, journals, forums, and classifieds to individual profiles. The popularity of online blogs and journals among professionals, politicians, and advocates continues to soar as the blogosphere caters to millions of online readers.

Others use networking sites for exactly what the name implies: networking. Social media users are notified of new friend requests, and the request may be accepted or rejected. Features such as a personalized friend’s list and events calendar helps to organize contact information and keep track of scheduled business meetings and other important dates.

Business owners also use social media sites for promotional and marketing purposes. Many non-profits also use sites such to provide “friends” and “fans” to keep up-to-date on announcements and current happenings. Social media sites serve as a free public relations tool for businesses and non-profits to reach target markets and population segments. Another great marketing feature of Facebook for example, allows users to create and publish advertisements. Customized ads attract thousands of potential customers for stagnate businesses or generous donors for non-profits.

Finally, Twitter is another very popular social media site. The simple and basic features of Twitter attract million of users. Unlike sites such as MySpace and Facebook, Twitter is a social network site that allows members to answer the question: “What are you doing?” Text answers are required to be fewer than 140 characters. Texts may be sent by logging into your Twitter account, accessible by the Internet, instant messages or mobile texting. Perhaps Twitter is best known for comments posted by celebrities in reaction to news-worthy, as well as popular entertaining current events.

There are numerous online social media websites in addition to Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and Twitter. It depends upon what you expect from online networking when deciding which social media outlet is best for you. Whether you’re a celebrity or not, you can join the millions of other online socialites sharing everyday life with the world without leaving home!

Twitter is one of the best micro-blogging (Web 2.0) channels available online that you can use to communicate with customers and leads. You can also use Twitter for marketing purposes to signal important information, new blog posts, services, help desk queries, etc. Twitter search is a great real time search engine built around the messages that are Tweeted by members. If you were looking for real time information on the “Holidays Las Vegas” and what people are saying about it, Twitter Search is the place to find this information. But if you really want to swim with the fearless and benefit from every single move on Twitter, read on.

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Aim for the Retweet

Studies have shown that it is possible to intentionally create a Tweet worthy of a retweet. Ask to be retweeted and add the word “please” can be enough to encourage your Followers to do just that.

Have a Purpose to Your Tweets

“What could be more annoying and less useful than a site where thousands of people are given 140 characters to shout out about what they’re doing at every moment of the day? The amazing thing is that enough people out there think this mindless stream of ephemera (‘I’m eating a tangerine,’ ‘I’m waiting for a plane,’ ‘I want a Big Mac’) is interesting enough to serve as the basis for a viable advertising platform.” as Mark Simon wrote back in September 2007.

Build A Twitter Swipe of Important Tweets & Links

Wouldn’t it be just great if you could find the most useful tweets and links about the hottest most interesting topics online, all in one place? Wouldn’t it be just convenient if you could link that valuable information to the tweeple who posted it so you can have continuous access to his/her tweets by following him/her accordingly?

Actively Grow Your Following

Ask people to follow you at your Twitter URL. This might seem obvious, but most people still aren’t doing it. I admit, it was lost on me until about a month ago. This needs to be on everything – including your business card. Invite people to follow you by including a request, hyperlinked to your Twitter profile, in (1) your email signature and (2) the byline under blog posts.

So remember, while there are many help files, ebooks, blog posts available on the internet online for Twitter, the best Twitter Tips tool I have found is the Twitter Traffic Swarm.

Get more help and resources (including online links to valuable information) when you visit the original post on my blog.

When I first heard about twitter I was a bit sceptical. I guess I just didn’t see how extraordinarily powerful this site really was until recently. My friend RJ Pepino had built a twitter following of 21,000 in just a few months and was having people join him in his business opportunity everyday! All of these leads where free. If you’re looking to create some passive income online, build a home base business that runs on automation and build your own list of followers, you have to be on Twitter.

So I put together a Beginners guide for you to generating Leads on Twitter:

1. Twitter- Create a free Twitter account if you haven’t already done so. Don’t be shy when creating your bio, be yourself, remember you are creating relationships and connecting with people.

2. Twitbacks-Customize your Twitter background with Twitbacks. You want to stand out from the crowd.

3. Social Oomph- Make sure you use Social Oomph and create a free account. This will allow you to send automated welcome messages, aka DM’s to new followers and create settings that will automatically follow those who follow you or un follow those who do not follow you.

4. livelybrowser- Purchase the Twitter Friend Adder for $50. This is optional, but highly recommended. You can automatically add Twitter friends with this tool running in the background. It is recommended you do not add more than 100-200 friends per day or twitter will suspend your account. You can also un follow those who don’t follow you, which is recommended every 24-48hrs after adding. This is extremely handy when doing followings of 100 or more people per day, which you will need to do to build a list fast and automation, is the way to go! If you’re on a budget, just add friends manually by finding others in your same niche but that is very time consuming.

If you follow my four powerful Twitter tips you will see a great improvement in your Twitter experience.

You’re missing out on valuable and free marketing platforms for your brand (book, business or product) if you think Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media communities are only for teens.

Further, if you’re not on social media, you’re risking losing your own potential clients/customers to those smart businesses people who are utilizing social media.

Which social media platforms you focus on depends a great deal on what your brand is. Here are seven excellent reasons why you must use social media no matter what you are promoting:

Reason 1: It’s the most cost-effective online advertising.

The current most popular social media platforms being used for business are free: Twitter.com, Facebook.com and LinkedIn.com. (LinkedIn does have an upgrade that costs, but it’s not necessary to get this upgrade.) And this is “relationship” marketing to targeted markets. “Free” is definitely more cost-effective than spending money on online advertising techniques such as Pay Per Click or banner ads.

Reason 2: You can have global reach with social media.

The world is now a global marketplace. Why not reach this global market? Many of the most popular social media platforms have this global reach, and you can see this clearly illustrated on Twitter. At any time of day or night you can see real-time “tweets” from people in Japan, England, the U.S., India and many other countries.

For example, if you have a book that might appeal to anyone in the world who reads in English, why limit yourself to just promoting in the U.S.? Thanks to Amazon these people outside the U.S. can buy your book even if it is only available in U.S. stores.

Reason 3: You can attract targeted groups of people as potential clients/customers for your brand.

Social media enables you to join groups of people with the same interests and goals. On LinkedIn and Facebook you can join groups as varied as Children’s Book Writers to eMarketing. If you choose groups to join based on your brand, you’ll be putting yourself in front of the exact groups of people you want to reach as potential clients/customers. This can pay off in increased sales for you.

Reason 4: You can use the community aspect of social media to form your own community.

Once you are active on social media platforms and have people who are your followers (Twitter), your friends (Facebook) and/or your connections (LinkedIn), you can start your own groups of highly targeted interests. You can create a niche market in your brand, book or business and share your knowledge with others who join your community.

These people can become your loyal followers, friends and connections – and they can help spread your marketing message to their followers, friends and connections.

Reason 5: You can use social media to establish your expertise.

People like to do business with people they know, like and trust. By sharing your knowledge for free online with the people in the social media groups you belong to, you can establish yourself as an expert. This can pay off in increasing potential clients/customers’ trust in you.

And you can also receive invitations for blog “interviews” or BlogTalkRadio show interviews or podcasts. And these interviews lead to more free exposure for your brand and more free promotion for your expertise.

Reason 6: You can use social media to find cross-promotional partners.

Amazingly in the world of social media, people who would be considered competitors in the off-line world are teaming up to provide products and services to their combined clients/customers.

And these clients/customers are very responsive to these cross-promotions (often called joint ventures) – especially when introduced to a second expert by a first expert they already know, like and trust.

You and your cross-promotion partner can each get access to the other person’s “list” (the names of interested clients/customers collected at a website) and thus you’ve greatly expanded your potential client/customer pool.

Reason 7: With a few keystrokes you can announce new updates of your activities.

Your updates on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn take seconds – and you’ve announced to your followers, friends and connections what you’re doing or what you’re offering or what you’re speaking on. And there are even online applications that allow you to update your status across several of your social media accounts at one time. So it is as easy as 1-2-3 to keep in front of your potential clients/customers.

In conclusion, once you become active yourself on social media platforms, you’ll find many more reasons to promote your brand, book or business on social media in order to attract targeted potential clients/customers. And you’ll look back at your pre-social media days and wonder how you ever did marketing without using online social media.

Copyright (c) 2009 Meredith Liepelt

According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social media, there are currently over 12 million users on Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another 17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and 49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target market falls within these demographics, actively participating on Twitter is probably worth your while.

Twitter is simply a micro blogging service. What does that mean? It means that you write short updates (140 characters maximum) called “tweets” and send them out to your followers. And it is a marketer’s dream come true – it’s an easy way to stay in front of your target market and showcase your authority at no charge!

The myth around Twitter is that Twitter users (called tweeple or tweeps) tweet about useless information such as what kind of coffee they had with breakfast. Yes, some of that exists and it is actually important as you’ll see below, but once you understand the power of connecting on Twitter, you may become a Twitter convert, just like me.

So, if you’re on Twitter or considering starting, the question becomes, “what do I tweet about that will make this a useful tool for me?” Here are some categories you can consider for your tweets. There are others but these will get you started:

Industry Tips

This is a big one. You are on Twitter to showcase your expertise, so industry tips act as your credibility builders. Here’s how to do it: Create a list of high value tips (remember – no more than 140 characters long) and send one or two out every day. If you don’t want to have to manually do this yourself every day, consider a free tool called TweetLater.com to set up your tweets in advance. If your tweets are really good, others will send them out to their lists as well. This is called a “re-tweet,” and it’s a super way to quickly build you list of targeted followers.

Here is one of my recent tweets that had a great response:

Connect Others: Be willing to connect others even if it has nothing to do with your business. What goes around, comes around.

About Your Business

Use this category sparingly. In other words, if you use Twitter as a place to advertise your products and services too much, people will stop following you. This is not what Twitter is about. It is really about raising awareness of you and your business and impacting others. Use the 80/20 rule here. For every eight tweets about things other than your business, you can post two things about your business.

Here is an example:

Hey Columbus: I’ll be on Fox tomorrow at 7:45 where you can see me interviewed about my new book, Flourish!

Re-Tweets

When some re-tweets you, they are giving you the highest compliment you can get on Twitter! It means that the person who re-tweeted you thinks that what you said is worth sharing with their own list of followers. This is like having someone ask you to a meeting so they can introduce you their entire list of contacts. When you get a re-tweet, send them a short tweet thanking them! Re-tweet others who are tweeting things that you agree with or want your followers to read.

If you are not familiar with Twitter, the example below probably won’t make a lot of sense because of all of the abbreviations, but they are necessary given that you only have 140 characters. Abbreviations are outside the scope of this article, but just know that it’s really not as scary as it looks!

RT @getgreatcopy: New blog post: The Sixth Habit of Highly Effective Communicators http://bit.ly/175XGS Gr8 stuff Jan, as usual.

Quotes

Tweeps seem to love quotes. If you are also a fan of quotes, compile a list and send one or two out every day. Again, you can use tweetlater.com to set these up in advance so you don’t have to manually enter them every day. Simply set up these tweets for a month and then watch your re-tweets happen!

Here’s an example of one that I recently posted:

“The pursuit of pleasure must be the goal of every rational person.” Voltaire

Invitations

Invite tweeps to your free events. No-cost events like teleseminars are great to tweet about because people love to share high-value, low-cost information with their lists. When you offer something without a cost – a workshop, teleseminar or report, your tweets about it are likely to get re-tweeted, which provides you with greater exposure to your target market.

Here’s an example of one of my recent posts:

How 2 write your book in a weekend – free telesemimar w/ @donnakozik. http://bit.ly/127GtU

Personal

Include some personal things that are going on with your life. What you choose to include is entirely up to you; however, be sure to be relatable. You don’t have to share your deepest inner thoughts or too much detail about your family, but sharing something about what you did over the weekend makes you more relatatable. Remember, Twitter is about connecting with people. Other people on Twitter want to connect with people – not stale businesses. People often connect on a personal level over food, pets or hobbies. This is why these seemingly unimportant tweets are actually very fruitful. These are pretty safe personal topics. General things about kids are another hot topic under this category. Just be aware that anything you say is out there for the world to read.

Here’s an example I tweeted recently:

Interesting pop culture moment: Told a story to my sister, who lives in Vietnam & realized she doesn’t know who Sara Jess. Parker is!

As you can see, Twitter is simply an online forum for connecting with others in 140 characters or less. Big and small brands are using Twitter to connect and impact their target markets and locate joint ventures. Can you, too?