Social Media marketing is all about branding your product online on different social networks. This involves making of fan pages and corporate profiles, posting pictures and videos and a lot of healthy, related text about it. This whole package creates a lot of attraction online for those who are searching either exactly for this product, or something similar.

Social media marketing also has the involvement of different advertising campaigns, as it helps to promote the product on different websites and social networks. The ad could then lead to the social network corporate page where you can post updated information about your company and announcements.

You can also carry out several promotional schemes that consists of freebies items and giveaways, as this has proven to be a lot effective form of online marketing campaign.

But you also have to take care not to overdo it. Too many 'fan pages' or requests or suggestions that you should like a particular page just become annoying and turn people off. It can end up having the opposite from the desired result when people are just turned off your product or company.

Social media is the talk of the industry right now, but what resources or sites help manage and measure your social media strategy? Some sites to take a look at:

• Addict-o-Matic
  
• Social Mention
  
• Yasni
  
• TweetBeep
  
• Technorati
  
• Blog Pulse
  
• FriendFeed
  
• Shareaholic
  
• FriendBinder

I like Social Mention for the analysis tools it displays.

.. Regardless, if you are in business, you need to have a social media strategy. Social Media Marketing presents the opportunity to try a number of different social networks and promote or market in these as appropriate. Each social network has its own pros and cons. For example, Twitter is more like a broadcast, one way radio and a Facebook fan page can create conversations that people can easily follow.

I agree social media is an important medium for building an online brand but how much ROI does social media activity actually generate?

There was a recent Social Media conference held in London last month. The theme of this year’s conference was harnessing the viral power of social networks to gain the maximum exposure.

There is more information here including the best free social media marketing syndication tools.

Thanks,
Sinead

That's true and effective.

thnx Steve-Hostirian for the list

We agree that social marketing would be one of the most effective way to increase your brand awareness through online society, do make sure that you have chosen the right segmentation

It is very difficult to attract the targeted traffic which may be driven through the social media advertising. However, it is the faster way of getting traffic into your site. All we need is converting this traffic into business.

If you are not careful with social media, there is a high probability that your account may get banned.

Social Networking is a good way to get your name out there, but it doesn't always result in more business.

Social media requires a lot of attention and work.Business owners cannot pay another company to act as them on their social accounts.These Social Media Networks generate lots of traffic and they are very helpful in increasing the visibility of the website.

I agree mostly, but I think owners can pay for other companies to take care of the marketing, or they have a sector for marketing.

Ya I think even the cpm or cpc campaigns will be effective in attracting fans and customers. Once they become fans than its easier to have conversions and about social media marketing I think its best to use auto social bookmarkers like onlywire.

I believe that social networking will be the best choice in terms of customers attracting