It has almost become something of a cliché to say that the future of advertising in social media. However, there is a bit of truth at the heart of every cliché, and this one is no exception. The statistics tell the same story. Spending on social media advertising is expected to increase nearly tenfold over five years, from $350 million in 2007 to $2.7 billion in 2012. This is a market opportunity if there ever was one.

Here are 3 excellent ways to leverage the increasing power and popularity of social media in order to increase the visibility of your company and attract new customers.

Work the Relationship Side
The ancient Chinese philosopher Sunzi stated in his classic The Art of War that if you know your enemy and you know yourself, then 100 wars will be 100 victories. In a more modern context, this means that if you know your customers, then you will be much more likely to properly understand them, and to understand what they are looking for.
The rise of social media presents an unprecedented opportunity to know your customers, and to know exactly what they are looking for. Take advantage of this opportunity to create an open dialogue with your customers. Provide them with the relevant content that they are looking for, and maintain this dialogue so that it is open 24 hours per day.
With social media marketing, your immediate goal need not be to push products on customers. Instead, you can think about a social media campaign as akin to having an office emails system. It facilitates communication with your customers, and allows them to reach out to you.

By keeping these channels in place and open, you will ultimately see increased traffic levels, and increased business levels.

Social Media Is Not a Stand-Alone Goal
As an ever-changing beast, it is hard to even define exactly what social media is, nonetheless how you can effectively leverage it for success. However, social media is definitely dynamic. This means that your thinking about social media needs to go beyond simply making a Facebook fan page to drive traffic to your website to drive an increase in sales.
Instead, just try to link all aspects of your social media campaign together. So when you write a new blog post, include buttons to make it easier for people to share it via Facebook and twitter. Likewise, create some of your blog posts as videos, and share them on YouTube. By sharing across more channels, you create additional exposure.

Create Great Content (and Know How to Share it)
As it always seems to be, the final takeaway is that great content is king. And as social media is all about sharing, whether you will be successful in your social media campaign depends on whether you create content that is share-worthy, and share-able.

This is all about adding value for your customers. Look at it from their point of view. Don’t just talk about yourself or your business. Make a video or an article that your customers will like, and they will want to share with their friends, and you’ll get all the free promotion you could ever want.

Video marketing has always been a fabulous way to engage consumers, but the price of television advertising has made it something that many small business owners can not afford. The Internet has brought video marketing down to a price that anyone can afford: Free. It is now possible to make video advertisements for a fraction of the cost of television advertising. Online hosting is completely free on your own website or using sites like YouTube, so the only cost is on video production. Many small business owners have mistaken ideas about the costs of online video production. They think that if the video is not professionally produced it will not have the correct response in consumers. This is simply not true.

• Consumers respond better to a video than any other type of marketing. Even when the video is not a professional production, the ability to put a face with a company is crucial to business success. Consumers are more likely to purchase from businesses with which they feel an emotional connection. The key to building customer loyalty is in building long term relationships. When consumers feel like they get to know the people behind the corporate façade, they are much more engaged.

• Professional production is not required. All that you need to create a successful online advertisement or marketing video is a web cam and time. Even a script is not a necessity. You can simply determine the information you want to cover ahead of time and then speak slowly and clearly to the camera. The point is to give consumers a face to go with the information. Of course, more professional productions may get more views, but millions of views do not translate into millions of sales. Focus on providing niche specific information, and you will enjoy increased sales figures as a direct result of your video campaign.

• Free hosting makes it all possible. The ability to put your video up with no cost is what makes this such a successful aspect of online marketing. Since you are not spending anything on the posting, if you want to work with a production company or professional videographer, you may be able to find the budget. The combined cost of production and display spots are what make television so expensive. The low resolution online format allows you to minimize your costs and maximize your return.

Video marketing is not just a great way to build consumer loyalty. It also helps your website with search engine optimization. Video is becoming a more and more popular search result, which means that it is more likely to be ranked higher on SERPs. Because you can create online videos in minutes, with just a bit of editing to make them publish ready, no business can afford to ignore the benefits of online video marketing. Start filming your own video today, and track the responses. You will need to ensure that it is tagged properly so that it is easily found, but watch as the view numbers climb rapidly and you get increased web traffic.

For companies that want to stay ahead of the competition, now is the time to streamline departments and open up the lines of communication between employees. Formerly, this would be dependent on computer and internet access, expensive programs, and other pieces of costly, unitasking technology. Now, there are Dell IT solutions in the pocket of nearly every employee, the smartphone. These devices are not just for texting and calls, they offer companies a chance to utilize custom apps to take profits, efficiency, brand awareness, and a company's identity to a whole new level.

App markets for the Droid and iPhone are astonishingly large, with hundreds of thousands of options for everything from streaming videos to planning business trips. Companies now have the option to utilize preexisting apps, alter current apps, or create custom apps specifically for their business. One of the key sectors that apps have revolutionized is the accounting department. Mail, taxes, faxing, payroll, and other
financial programs have all gone mobile. Apps such as Intacct and LessAccounting integrate with cloud memory systems to keep track of taxes, expense reports, inventory, and purchasing. Management can regulate employees with tiered access to data, ensuring that sensitive information reaches those that need it and no one else.

Whether companies are offering goods and services around the world or are focusing on a local demographic, real-time information is the key to success. When it comes to customer transactions, most businesses have been relegated to desktop programs, dedicated cashiers, or outsourcing the work to off-site partners. With a smartphone and a handful of apps, companies will be able to do away with these extra costs and boost productivity.

Nearly every financial institution offers ready-made or custom apps for smartphone
owners. Employees that are working off-site will be able to print out an > estimate, order required parts, and even scan the client's check or credit card. All of this information can then be sent to the transportation department, management, human resources, or any other party that needs the information.

Offering company smartphones to employees has taken on a whole new meaning. Management will find themselves with secure information any time they need it. Employees will have access to the programs they need anywhere they go. Best of all, these customized or preexisting apps cost just a fraction of their desktop counterparts and were built with the competitive company in mind.

With Internet marketing, you open your business to the world. You are no longer a big fish in a small pond, or even a small fish in a small pond, but instead, you are a speck in the ocean. The trick is to reduce the ocean to a series of small ponds. Small businesses can not compete with Internet giants for page rankings, so the best method of search engine optimization (SEO) for them is Local Optimization. Instead of competing for an infinitesimal slice of the world pie, put your business in the position of owning the entire local pie. By placing your company at the forefront of local options you expand your markets considerable without the expenses of trying to compete with retail giants like Amazon.

Local search optimization is all about improving your online visibility through local business listings and Google maps. By posting complete profiles on local listing sites, you generate additional traffic through those avenues. Consider, how many times have you visited Google to search for something local and had results that were international? It is a very common phenomenon. Search engine users are becoming more careful in their search terminology. Where once, they may have used the term “pizza and subs” now, they use “pizza and subs in Atlanta”. Some even use more location specific terms that reference a particular neighbourhood. By ensuring that your business is listed locally with Google, you improve your ability to target customers in the immediate area.

Without local optimization for your website, that includes a complete profile including address, your business is unlikely to appear in the top five for any search result. By including local terms and keywords that are specific to your area, you improve your chances of a first page result dramatically. Google is not including maps on search results, so if you business is listed it can show on unrelated searches as well. When a person uses Google maps to find a location, Google automatically generates other places of interest in the area. If they are seeking restaurants, even though yours was not specifically targeted, it may still show in the associated results. The same is true for retail stores, government buildings, entertainment options and much more.

Local optimization allows you to maximize your presence in a highly specific area. By using the Internet to strategically advertise your business, you find a niche that is perfect for your company. SEO is all about finding a niche to market successfully. Niche markets are traditionally under represented in traditional stores. For example, the man who wears a size 15 shoe or the women who needs extra petite in clothing may have difficulty finding items in regular stores. The Internet is designed to bring those niche customers to the appropriate niche retailer. On the Internet, local stores are a niche. Because the business model has swung toward globalization, local markets have been left out of the loop. A business should exploit all local listing opportunities to increase their local market penetration.

Consumers are constantly on the prowl for the best price on the top of the line items they are looking for. Sites like Groupon and Living Social offer an opportunity for businesses to connect with thousands of local customers, and possibly gain a new following.

What are Social Buying Sites? Groupon and Living Social are both good examples of social buying sites. They contact local businesses, or local businesses contact them, and provide incredible discounts on sought after services. Restaurants might offer a fifty percent off coupon through one of these sites, or local spas might offer a day of beauty for a fraction of the regular price. But the question remains: does offering these incredible bargains actually help the business?

Coupons are a Risk, but the Math Works! Businesses are often reluctant to offer the deep discounts required by sites like Groupon and Living Social, because they will lose money on those offers. However, both of those sites allow the business to place strict limitations on the number of coupons to be sold, and in many cases they offer the opportunity for a runner-up offer. For example, a person goes to buy the sixty percent off coupon being sold on Groupon, but only five hundred were offered. They are already sold out, so instead the social buying site offers a free or very inexpensive coupon that gives twenty percent off. While the second coupon is not as great a discount as the first, a business can offer more of them without worrying about losing money. The offer also lets small businesses market directly to a local audience for practically free. The startup cost is negligible and the social buying site only takes a percentage of the sales for the coupon.

What Not to Do to Customers that Use Social Buying Coupons The first thing to remember is to never treat them differently from full paying customers. The only way you can show them how great your business truly is, is to treat them like a regular customer. Yes, the business may lose money on the five hundred coupons they sold. However, some of those coupons will never be redeemed, and some of the people that use them may become regular customers. If a business manages to generate repeat business from only five percent of the coupons sold, over time the promotion will pay for itself. Yes, the business experiences a temporary loss, but in the long run it is good for business. It brings a small business to the attention of people that had never tried it before. Stand by your product or service and don’t be afraid to offer it at a loss occasionally.

When you have a solid product, getting people to try it is the hardest part. Once you have the opportunity to show consumers how great you are, repeat business is just around the corner. Don’t offer coupons constantly, but strategic offers designed to bring customers in during an otherwise slow season can be a great way to open new revenue streams and help with cash flow.

The top three methods for driving traffic to a website are the same as they have always been, utilize on-page optimization for search engines; don’t depend solely on the search engines for traffic; one way back links from quality sites do wonders. Although they are not new, many developers and marketers have a difficult time properly implementing these strategies. Here is a basic guide to implementation.

On Page Optimization
Ensure that your page is optimized by incorporating keywords in both the content on each page and in the titles, headers, Meta tags and Meta description. If you use carefully researched keywords appropriately throughout your site it will help increase your page rankings and help potential customers find your website. Many designers fail to focus on only one or two keywords per page on a website, but that is what is required to create an optimized site. Don’t use the keyword in every sentence; that will not read well and can actually drive people away from your site.

Other Traffic Sources
Search engines are a great way to drive traffic to a site, but they are hardly the only method. There are many listing services that will allow you to post a free business listing. Including your web address in your signature is always a good idea, particularly if you are active on social media sites and in forums. Starting a blog can help increase web traffic. Starting a fan page on Facebook can increase traffic. Search engines can help drive traffic, but you should never put all of your effort into only one method and any marketing option that doesn’t have additional cost beyond time should be explored. Of course, the best thing about using other methods to increase page views, is that it will also increase your search engine ranking.

Quality Link Backs
Not only do link backs drive traffic to your website all on their own, but the number of link backs to your site is one of the things Google uses to determine your page rank. Each link is a sort of vote in favor of your page. Not every page is a good one to provide a link back though. In order to actually reap the benefits the page on which your link is posted should have 30 links or less. It is best if the websites with your backlinks are in some way industry related. The best of all worlds is when you can obtain those backlinks for free.

There are as many methods for advertising a website as there are for advertising a traditional store. The great thing about internet marketing is that so much of it is available free or at a very low cost. While television and radio ads are still a possibility, the cost to purchase spots on those types of media is very high. A well planned online marketing campaign can provide the same level of exposure, without all the upfront cost. In fact, for most internet marketing the largest cost is time.

As a marketer, it is always a good idea to use any possible medium which could lead to more exposure to potential customers, as well as establish one’s own business image. Social networks has made the promotion and branding process very much possible to do simultaneously, without having to spend tons of money separately on advertising and public relations campaigns. Twitter, one of the marketing “tools” of the recent decade, has made it possible for marketers to seamlessly provide information to their potential customers, and establish relationships at the same time.

For those who may not be familiar with Twitter yet, it is a free website service that allows users to share short nuggets of information (called Tweets) to their network of friends. These Tweets or updates may be sent out towards an entire friend network in real time. While Twitter is made purely for social purposes, marketers can ethically take advantage of this free service in order to generate website traffic, promote products, send updates to customers, share information related to business, and build one’s image online as a merchant. Here are some tips that could help any online marketer generate more leads and traffic from Twitter:

1. Start by getting your first 100 followers. If you already have a Twitter account for your friends and family, I suggest you create another account which is devoted entirely for your business contacts, such as leads, customers and business partners. The reason for this is that you don’t want to bug your friends and family with marketing content. You want to make sure that your promotional Tweets will only be sent to people who have a built-in interest on your niche or industry. Once you create your account, I suggest that you refrain from sending out any promotional message unless you have at least 100 followers. There is really no Twitter power if you don’t have any followers. So build your follower base first, by promoting your Twitter link to your existing business contact list or customer database.

2. Let your blog and Twitter account work hand in hand. Each time you have a new blog post, send a Tweet to your Twitter followers, informing them of your new blog post. In your Tweet, you can insert a few sizzle words just before mentioning your blog post link so that readers will be curious enough to check it out. Needless to say, your blog must contain links that point out to your main website so that your readers will eventually end up on your sales letter or lead capture page.

3. Avoid exchanging follows. There are people on Twitter who will offer you something like, “Follow me and I’ll follow you”. Lots of online marketers fall for this trap, but usually it is counter-productive. The reason for this is that the followers you get from such “exchanges” are not truly interested about you and your marketing information. They simply exchanged follows because they want you to check their marketing content. Think about it. If you have five hundred of these “followers” on your Twitter account, you’ll be flooded with more marketing messages all day than you can handle! So stick with those who genuinely want to follow you because they like your content.

PPC and SEO are two methods widely used online that provide the key to more website traffic and income. While PPC stands for pay-per-click, SEO stands for search engine optimization. The two techniques are totally different from each other, but they are similar in the aspect that they are both keyword based, and they use the same metrics. Regardless of what level you are in as an online marketer, you need to learn how to use both PPC and SEO as part of your overall advertising strategy. Let’s discuss some guidelines that apply to both of these promotional methods:

1. You must be able to perform laser targeted keyword research at all times. In pay-per-click marketing platforms such as Google Adwords, keyword research is important because your success totally depends upon it. Your advertising costs, the amount of exposure you get, and the level of competition you will face, are all totally dependent on the keyword phrases you will choose to base your advertisements on! So if you lose the battle of keyword research, you are doomed to fail in the long run. Meanwhile, keyword research is also vital in search engine marketing because you will base the content of your site and your website content on laser targeted keywords for fresh organic traffic. Using both paid and free keyword research tools is a must for any serious marketer.

2. You should learn how to strategically place your keywords. Proper keyword placement is essential if you want to succeed both in PPC and SEO. In pay-per-click, you must learn to place properly researched keywords on your mini-ads. When people click on those ads, they must be led to a landing page which is also “optimized” for relevant keyword phrases. This increases the “relevance” of your advertising campaign to the needs of your target audience, causing you to have a higher “quality score” in the PPC platforms such as Google. The higher your quality score, the lower you pay for each click.

Meanwhile, keyword placement is also important in SEO because it allows you to place your key phrases in locations where they have a higher chance of getting picked up by the search engines. For example, if your goal is to rank higher for a certain keyword phrase, you should place it at least once in the page title, meta tags, and description of your webpage. Maintaining proper keyword density within the body of your landing page also increases the likelihood that your website will get a higher ranking when the search engines index it.

3. Learn To Use Metrics and Analytics To Improve The Response Of Your Promotional Campaigns. Website analytics allow you to find out how much traffic you are getting to your website and ads. You will also discover your primary traffic sources, the behavior of your website visitors, and which keywords they actually used to get into your site! Using analytics is important if you want to tweak your ad campaigns and your landing page for better conversions. Google Analytics is one free way to get the information that you need.

Back in the days BI (Before Internet) companies trying to reach customers were pretty much tied to television, radio and newspaper advertising with a few sending out advertising mailers to keep their customers informed about what they were doing and what they were selling. Networking meant going to meetings and mixers and swapping business cards with all of the other business folks, regardless of their industry.

With the dawning of the internet age, all this has changed. Sure, some die-hards still attend industry meetings and hand out business cards, but when it comes to reaching out to their customers they have turned to the internet to get their marketing message, as well as advertising, to their potential customers.

It took a few years for business owners to recognize that the internet was becoming popular and when customers started asking if they had a website, they started thinking that maybe this internet things wasn’t just a fad like the hoola-hoop. Now, nearly every business, small, medium and large has a website. Social media has allowed them to expand their interaction with their customers and find some new ones to boot. Not too bad for something that’s only been around for about 20 years.

When the internet was first plugged in it was basically a storage area for information. Today it is a means for people to interact with the world and businesses have realized the importance of having an online presence. Businesses have also learned new options of improving their relationship with their customers, such as engagement and how to provide customer service while never really coming face-to-face with them.

It took some of the older business owners a while to understand that the internet was changing the way their business will operate in the future. However, once they got a handle on the reality of electronic communications and how they could reach out to more customers, or at least potential customers, for far less money than their old advertising ways, the use of the internet by businesses took off.

Social media also presented a new opportunity to take their marketing plans to the next level. No longer are their marketing efforts limited to business mixers with industry peers and even leaders, but they now have access to the customers themselves. They understand that it is not enough to have a website explaining the company’s history and goals. To improve their reputation on a global scale they have to have a presence in the social media such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

They can now put out a message, as well as advertising, to hundreds of thousands of customers with a few mouse clicks at a fraction of the cost as traditional advertising. It may have taken a few short years, but more businesses are recognizing that the internet changed the way to do business, like it or not.

One of the main stumbling blocks when starting a new online business is marketing your site without a lot of money in your pocket. Face it. Without advertising or some means of marketing, your site can go for months without anyone finding it. Unlike the famous movie, if you build it they won’t come if they don’t know it is there.

Consider the scenario: you build a great brick-and-mortar business on a small country road. It has the best possible appearance and its setting is exceptionally inviting to visitors. Further more you stock some of the best products available at unbelievably low process and then open your door. Since you don’t have a lot of money you have to choose between newspaper advertising and a billboard. You opt for the billboard, thinking it will draw more attention to your business that is off the beaten path.

Unfortunately, the only billboard you could afford was on another country road that has maybe six cars a day drive by. You spent the last of your resources and have no customers to show for it. This happens frequently with new websites and until money starts coming in, advertising is just a dream.

On the internet there are alternatives such as affiliate marketing to help drive business to your site with the help of other, hopefully more established websites. Affiliate marketing can help drive traffic to your site without having to pay for advertising. Other sites place an ad on their site for something you sell, hopefully it is a site that is relevant to yours, and you pay them a percentage of any sales that come from visitors from that site. If they don’t buy anything, you don’t pay.

You can establish your own in-house affiliate program complete with all the tracking software or you can connect with an online site that will do all the work for you. This method can be a more cost-effective method of gaining visitors. Affiliate marketing sites typically allow you to develop your own ads, textual or graphic, and then announce on their business that you are accepting affiliates.

You have the choice of allowing them to automatically become one of your affiliates or wait until you approve their site before making it official. Depending on the type of business you operate, this may be a good choice to make sure your ad isn’t showing up on sites whose content makes you uncomfortable. You may not want visitors coming to your site from XXX rated sites, which could allow people to draw the conclusion that you condone those sites, even if you don’t.

Additionally, most websites look at how many links from relevant sites you have linking to your site and the more relevant websites that carry your ads as affiliates can count as a link back. If you accept a site as an affiliate you may want to see about placing an ad from them on your site, although you are going to pay them for any sales they send your way, the outbound link may also help your search engine rankings.