There are so many Social Media/Networking sites out there now—Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn—just to name just a few. There are so many to choose from, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. And even when you do get started, it can be difficult to know just how to make it really effective.

We researched the topic extensively and found there to be many places to find advice on the mechanics of getting involved with social media. But what we wanted to know is what is REALLY being used, why, and how it is working to truly promote business.

So we went to the source and asked the question of expert social media marketers. And, here's what we found:

• LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com): Arguably the most used site for business professional networking. But, more than linking with your professional network, LinkedIn can be used to promote your business to a wide audience. LinkedIn does have an advertising opportunity, but it is still not quite right (currently you pay per "impression" vs. per click...that can really add up quick, with little results). The best use of LinkedIn is to participate in the Q&A section and its many "Groups," where you can quickly establish yourself as an expert in your field...by answering questions, participating in discussions, and submitting articles you've written to group members.
  
  Tony Lael illustrates by saying, "We use LinkedIn Groups and Applications as the primary way to connect our audience to blogs, videos, news and other key information that are valuable to them. This has helped us build a primary network of business relationships that may or may not be our customers today, but helps us stay top-of-mind if they ever decide they need something we have available."
  
  Check out our LinkedIn Checklist!

• Facebook (www.facebook.com): Used primarily for personal networking, where friends and family stay connected through Facebook. While many do use Facebook to network for business, business networking is questionably of value through this tool.
  
  Where businesses are finding value in Facebook is in the advertising opportunity. You pay "per click" and you have amazing targeting power with Facebook. In fact, Mark Levitt, Senior Director of Creative Services with CardPartner, Inc. shares, "Facebook is outperforming LinkedIn and MySpace for us both on the B-toB and B-to-C fronts. We have seen positive results from advertising and from viral marketing on Facebook and are putting a greater emphasis on it in our 2009 plans."

• Twitter (www.twitter.com): A simple concept of sending short (VERY SHORT) messages out to those who follow you. Twitter started as a personal way of telling your personal network "what you are doing" at any given moment. It has also been used by bloggers and content site owners in the same way RSS is used--to quickly blast out the most current news and articles available. In fact, we now offer Twitterers the ability to be notified when we publish a new article in The Resource Center. Follow us on Twitter to see an example of how you might use this tool. Not only does this allow us to alert followers of new content, it helps with SEO too!

• Flickr (www.flickr.com): Primarily a tool for managing graphics and photos for your own internal organization, Flickr is proving to be a tool with external benefits as well.
  
  Gregory T'Kint, the Managing Partner at My Digital Partner, shares, "I am using this photo sharing site because it allows me to manage visuals much more easily than it would be on our own corporate web site. These visuals can easily be shared internally and externally, but since each visual can be accompanied by an html description this impacts positively on Search Engine rankings for specific search phrases (Google and Google Images). I started using Flickr consistently and only afterwards realized what the added search engine benefits were and the multitude of ways in which you can integrate Flickr visuals into web pages."

• YouTube (www.youtube.com): With today's easy-to-access video production tools and WebCam availability, this is an option more and more marketers can really use. Companies can use YouTube to publish training videos, product demos, and promotions very easily. And, as icing on the cake, the search engines love this "spider food" too!

• Blogs: Only a part of the social networking/media conversation because of their ability to allow readers to "comment" and "share" on the content they read.
  
  T'Kint elaborates, "I use blogs as easy publishing platforms to allow me to avoid Content Management Systems. They also allow non-technical people to write web content that is automatically integrated to web pages. This content can easily be syndicated and will again impact positively on your search engine rankings, even before it triggers any conversation/comments."
  
  The other marketing benefit Go-To-Market Strategies has found with blogs is the act of commenting on other blogs. This gives you a voice, promotes a top-of-mind position with your audience, and adds more online mentions (good for brand awareness and SEO) of your company with each entry.

• Other tools often mentioned included Technorati (www.technorati.com), Ecademy (www.ecademy.com), and SlideShare (www. SlideShare.net).

There are a lot of options, but there do seem to be favorites (LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook). Perhaps more importantly, there is a consistent strategy by those who use social media most effectively in their marketing mix—GO WHERE YOUR CUSTOMERS GO and participate with value! Not that sounds like traditional marketing advice to us :~).