Social media has transformed the Information Age as its products flood into every aspect of normal life. This is a significant change from 10 years ago, when the passing of information was controlled by only the top few media publishing giants. However, since the birth of applications like Facebook and Twitter, power has shifted to the masses, and now your every day layman can control more information than ever before. What is unique about this transfer of power is that the information is presented then sorted by the readers. Users vote on the importance of the information they find, and through this sorting and voting, the best of the bunch is at the top of the list.

Social Marketing

Social marketing comes in many forms, and is creating household names out of companies that barely existed ten years ago. People converge upon Facebook to virtually meet and exchange ideas. Twitter is increasing exponentially in size, and businesses can use their “tweet” to get followers to buy their products and services. Companies that are the most favored tend to have many followers who in return promote their services from their own sites, which multiplies exposure and audiences.

Business Marketing

By integrating social marketing with your business, the result is online business marketing to your target audience. From this, you can offer free reports, free products or coupons to promote your business and encourage more traffic to your website. The key to integrating for every internet marketer is to turn saturated contact on the web into revenue. Integration allows you to connect with multiple levels of people and multiplies your target audience as opposed to just using one medium of communication.

Small Business Marketing Strategies

A website is the main thing to create when thinking of small business marketing strategies. A website allows your company information to be accessible 24/7, from anywhere in the world. With internet usage growing daily, people want to be able to access information from their keyboard. Customers expect you to have a website, and when they discover that you don’t, it ruins your credibility, and they move on to another source that is online.

Social Media Tools

If you are unsure as to how to get started, there are some social media tools that you can use to shorten the learning curve and speed you on your way to creating a bigger presence on the internet for your small business.

1. Social Poster: A useful application that allows the user to post anything from articles to media on over 160 social and bookmarking sites at once. A very efficient and fast way to get an instant internet presence for your company. (www.socialposter.com)
2. Tweet Adder: Easy application to gain a quick following. You will need a Twitter account, and then you can target your audience via geography or keywords to locate interested parties.

The idea is that social marketing is not just about using one tactic, or hopping from one to the other every few months. In order to maximize the best internet presence for your small business, you need to have a plan that integrates all of the applications together. Through this integration, you have the best chance of reaching the customer.

Chris Marentis is a serial entrepreneur and recognized Internet Marketing expert having served as SVP at AOL and CEO of Clearspring Technologies. For more information on Social Media Marketing, go to http://www.surefiresocial.com today.