So you’ve been a busy bee lately trying to market your websites on a lot of hubs and directories online, and you seem to be getting the hang of it. That’s really great! You’re certainly following “the plan” for online success.

Well here’s another strategy to add to your arsenal of traffic-generating campaigns – Social Media Marketing. Sounds new? Not really. A lot of people have been into this type of marketing, albeit unconsciously.

Have you experienced chatting with a really close friend online and trying to invite him or her to join Sunday worship with your family or have you tried posting images of a cute puppy for sale on a blog and hoping that some good pet owners take one of your pets home. And many people have certainly been buzzing on social bookmarking and news update sites, trying to share their latest discoveries or a link to a cool new bungee-jumping trick they’ve just discovered. The messages may be different but there’s something to learn from the media that these people are using. There’s certainly an “opportunity” to market towards a specific niche or category of social users. You’ve hit the Jackpot!

Well before moving further, let’s recap on the basic types of social media platforms where people are “lurking” these days.
Social Networks

Aha! You found them! Lots of people are certainly roaming around social networks like Facebook, Myspace and Friendster, trying to find friends, building relationships or potentially buying one of your products. There’s also the prospect of building communities within these social networks (because they were intended that way), where you can get a lot of following. Wouldn’t it be great for people to find one of your brands on a nifty social profile today? “If you build it, they will come” – and they most certainly do.

Social Bookmarking and News Update Sites

Let’s face it, people love news and gossip, and they most certainly enjoy keeping tabs or bookmarks of them. And from time to time social users also find it a good way to connect with others by telling them about websites they’ve visited through the social bookmarking or news update sites. And if you’re an avid fan of social bookmarking or spreading the “link love” around, then this is definitely for you.

RSS Sites

Do you have a blog? Do you want to let people to read your latest posts, from the “other side of the web”? RSS updates from your blog can be added on various RSS directories which people can bump into. Some will even tag or save an RSS link from your site directly to their RSS reader for quick viewing of your content. It’s a great way to alert people about “what’s hot” on your blog. And you can also add an RSS link to your social networks by the way. Helps people keep tabs on you.

Video Sharing Sites

A top favorite by many people nowadays, video sharing sites offer the most convenient form of brand promotions. You have a great idea on your head? Get a webcam and a microphone and let everyone know about it. Make sure to find an application to put a watermark of your link on the video or just add your link to the video description. Some credit will help, but plenty of inbound traffic will be better. So share your links wherever you can.

That’s about it. So start buzzing around the social media platforms today, and see how much traffic you can get. Make sure to have some catchy content and some really nice visual ads to show. Meet a lot of new friends and prospects, and build a social community following today.