Social media can be an excellent way to promote a company and further strengthen the online presence of any business. Also referred to as social networking, social media can be an excellent way to increase the traffic that comes into a website. However, In order for social media to work to your advantage, you must first understand what Social Media is and how it can be used to help your company’s website and online presence.

What is Social media?

Social media is online content and information published by people using resources and technology that are easily accessible through the internet. Social media can be used for business, pleasure, entertainment, politics, self-expression, or a combination. In recent years, the use and popularity of Social media has skyrocketed and taken the way we share information to a whole new level. It has provided people with a new and interactive way of discovering, viewing, reading, and sharing information, news, and content.

It has transformed the average everyday person into a publisher and broadcaster. Social media allows people anywhere in the world to connect instantly, stay connected, and communicate by exchanging information at the speed of light. Unlike traditional media, such as newspapers, publications, television, and film, social media is created using tools that are available to everyone and very inexpensive, in most cases completely free to anyone with an internet connection.

In some cases, a computer is not even necessary. People can connect to a number of different Social media outlets and publish information using a cell phone or other handheld device.

Social media allows people and businesses to form relationships and stay connected. It also allows people to share information, videos, music, pictures, opinions, and anything else that can be shared in a virtual environment. Businesses may refer to Social media as Consumer-Generated media or User-Generated Content.

What Kinds of Content can People Publish?

The kinds of content and Information that people can publish themselves is always reaching new levels. The possibilities are virtually endless, if there is a way to share any kind of information, people will find a way to do it using Social media. The most common information that people can publish includes: Written Information, Pictures, Music, and Videos.

Written Information on Social Media

People can publish written information about themselves or their business by using blogs or online profiles that can be easily found by other people. A blog can be used by an individual as a form of self-expression or by a business as a form of promotion and informing people about their business. Online profiles can be quick and easy and can provide people across a network to have access to general information about an individual or company.

Pictures and Music

One of the most popular and frequently used features of social media is to share pictures and music online. People can upload photos to the web and share them with the world or just a few friends. They can also tag their friends who are in the photos, so the photo’s show up on their friend’s profiles. Music is another popular use, unsigned bands and musicians can upload their music to the web as a way to promote themselves and their music.

Videos

Through the use of social media, everyone is a broadcaster. People can literally sit down and within just a few minutes, film a video on their camcorder or webcam, publish it to the internet, and almost instantly it is viewable to anyone in the world. Many Social media outlets can pull videos from each other, so if you upload your video to one, it will also be viewable on several others. Videos can also show up in search engine results.

This can be a very powerful tool because if a user searches for a keyword, and the search results consist of 15 web pages and 1 video, the user will most likely click the video first. Once a video has been published correctly using social media, it can be optimized for search engines, so it shows up in the search results for certain key terms. This process is known as video optimization.

Which Websites are People Using to Publish Information?

There are thousands of websites that the everyday user can use to publish information on the internet. The popularity and number of these websites is growing at a phenomenal rate. Some of the most common social media outlets are: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, WordPress, Merchant Circle, Naymz, LinkedIn, MySpace, Blogspot, Craigslist and many more.

How can I use Social media to help my Business?

There are several ways in which Social media can be used to promote a business, sell a product, and drive traffic to a website. Just by making friends and forming new connections with people, you can help spread the word about your business. By using a blog, you can publish information about your company that people can read and subscribe to. But do these methods really work? They can if done correctly. Social media by itself is a very poor way to market a business. For example, if a company does not have a website, but they have a MySpace profile, they probably won’t be very successful.

However, when social media is used correctly and in combination with a proper website, it can be extremely powerful. Think of it like this, your company’s website is a leader, and the Social media web pages are the followers, or the voters. The leader alone cannot have an influence on other leaders without the voters. And the voters alone cannot make an impact without the leader. The more social media that you are able to use properly to boost your website, the more traffic you will get, and as a result, the more traffic your social media pages will get.

When your social media gets more traffic, their vote is more important, so several different internet outlets can feed off of each other to create an even stronger leader. The search engines often seem to be the all-seeing eye of the internet. They give higher search rankings to sites that are popular, and Social media can help your website become more popular. So the search engine will see your website as a popular leader with many loyal followers and as a result your rankings improve and your website gets even more traffic.

This may sound somewhat simple; however, there are several other factors to consider. Relevancy is the most important. If your website is about gardening but your social media pages are not, it will not help as much. Creating a new Social media outlet with relevant content can help. For example, you can create a gardening blog and write a new entry once per week about gardening. This blog can link to your website and the support will be much stronger.

In addition, you can send your blog to all of your friends and it will get more traffic and will provide even more support. If the social media is strong, its ability to help your website will be stronger. So update your blog once a week and invite all of your friends to read it. This may not sound like a good way to get business, but it only takes a few hours a week and it can help your website tremendously.

The bottom line is, more social media, can mean higher search rankings, more traffic, a stronger internet presence, and ultimately, more phone calls and emails from potential customers.