One often overlooked form of social media marketing is visiting forums. An active membership in two or three forums is enough to help your business along. The key to social media marketing through forums is to build relationships with the other forum members by entering into dialog and conversation and being of general help. It really doesn’t take a lot of time.

In just 1 or 2 hours per week you can build solid relationships with other forum members and drive traffic to your website.

Most forums require you to sign up with a user name and password. After doing so, fill out the profile information about yourself and create a signature link that links to your blog and company website. I prefer sending new traffic from forums to my blog because a blog is less threatening. You are not necessarily trying to close the sale on the blog. Your blog is there to drive traffic to your website where you’ll close the sale. But the key to getting other forum participants to visit your blog is to be of some assistance to them.

There are three general levels of forum interaction:

1. Experienced Veteran - These people have been around a long time and probably know more than you do. Don’t step on their toes. Be respectful. You can disagree, but don’t make waves, especially if you are talking to a forum moderator. Remember, what comes around goes around.
2. Newbie - Also called noobs. These people are not only new to the forum, but may also be fairly new to the Internet. They may slip up from time to time so go easy on them. They are potential customers, but they are also so human so they deserve respect and kindness. Be a big help to them by sharing what you have learned through your experience and you can develop relationships with these people over time.
3. Adolescent/Young Adult - I’m not talking about actual adolescents or young adults. This personality type may be new to a forum or may have been around longer than the noob but not as long as the veteran, or they may be somewhat experienced with Web interaction and be totally new to the forum. Don’t assume that because a person has just a few posts on a forum that they are totally new to the Internet. They may actually be a seasoned veteran who does a lot of lurking. Be respectful. Share your knowledge, but also be willing to learn.

Forum interaction is a form of social interaction. People join forums primarily for the community. Many forums have taken strict measures against any perception of spam or blatant advertising. For that reason, you’ll want to be subtle. If you have events or specials you want to promote, find out if a forum has a special thread set aside for that. If not, don’t push it. Many times you can drop hints about certain things if it fits in well with the topic of a thread. Be careful that you don’t overdo it or come across too pushy. Just hang out and make friends.

Do you have a social media marketing team? If not, you might consider getting one. I believe that the future of Internet marketing is going to consist, to a large degree, of social media marketing and if do not put together the right team to help you navigate the waters of the social media marketing ocean then you will not get very far. But what should your team consist of?

I believe a good social marketing team, at a minimum, should consist of the following people or teams:

1. Blogging Team - I say you need a blogging team because it may be more than just one person. You may have several blogs, one that targets each market that you are trying to reach. But whether you have one or 100 bloggers on your team, you will need to develop your blogging team and keep them motivated.
2. Social Bookmarkers - Social bookmarking and tagging have become a niche unto themselves. There are all sorts of social bookmarking websites online now. Not all of them are helpful, but many of them are. And social bookmarking is an activity that takes time. The benefits, however, are well worth the payout. You’ll need someone to bookmark your content and use it to drive traffic and increase your search rankings.
3. Networking Agents - Whether you use Facebook or LinkedIn, you’ll need someone to serve as your organization’s networking liaison. This person will be responsible for applying to the various networking websites that you believe will benefit your company the most and manage those profiles. That includes approving friends requests, sending friends requests, testing and using applications, and performing all the functions of managing a networking strategy, whether you use just one networking site or several.
4. Reputation Manager - Reputation management has become very important online. Companies of the future will need to spend some time managing their online reputations and you’ll need one person who is devoted to that task. It could be your social media marketing manager, the head of your team, as reputation management really involves all aspects of social media marketing.
5. Market Research Team - Someone needs to gather the information that your company will use to market products and services. This team will be responsible for creating polls and surveys, analyzing the data you receive from your efforts, researching the competition, and doing all the things that traditional market research firms have done, but applying the tasks to Internet marketing strategies.
6. Content Writing Team - You can’t have social media content with a production crew. Usually this means content writing. It may mean videos, photos, or audio production (see below), but even if you do have those professionals on your team, you’ll also need content writers. No organization should go without a writing team.
7. Technology Administrator - You can’t go online without the guru of gurus. Don’t even think about it.

This is the bare minimum list. Other members of your social media marketing team could include:

• Viral Video Manager - Someone is going to have to produce those videos for you.
• Podcasting Specialist - You’ll need someone proficient in the use of audio technology to manage your downloads.
• Photo Marketing Manager - Does your organization use photos in its marketing plan? Someone will need to organize and manage that effort.
• Wiki Expert - Wiki technology has not caught on across the board yet. But some industries have managed to use it very effectively. If it proves useful to your company, you might consider having a wiki expert on your team.
• Forum Administrator - Not every company will have a forum, but if yours does then someone will need to manage it and that’s a full-time job. Even if you don’t manage your own forum, you may need someone who visits forums and interacts with other forum participants. That’s a special skill. Who’s going to do it?
• Use Your Imagination - This list is not comprehensive. Future technologies will require more specialties. You might as well start planning for the future now.

Now is the time to organize your social media marketing team. If you haven’t put any thought into how your business will organize its social media marketing efforts then you haven’t started your planning yet. It’s not too late.

One overlooked aspect of SEO that many small businesses overlook is social bookmarking. I highly recommend that every business engage in social bookmarking, not just for the social aspect of marketing but for the SEO benefits.

Just what are those benefits exactly?

I’ve noticed that when I bookmark blog posts that I’ve made, those blog posts will rise higher in the search rankings, stay longer in the search engine SERPs, and attract more traffic for my blog. The reason is simple. Each bookmark is an inbound link for your blog post or website. They likely also increase your PageRank, but that as yet is unproven.

Besides the SEO benefits, social bookmarking is a traffic tool. You can actually get a lot of great traffic from social bookmarking. Depending on the value of your content, its nature, and the various characteristics of the bookmarking sites you are using, that traffic can be good traffic or bad. It’s as important to choose the right social bookmarking tool for your blog as it is to engage in bookmarking. Take the time to learn the characters of each of the bookmarking sites and the kind of content that does well there.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Bebo can be good in a lot of ways. There is no lack of information regarding the benefits of social networking for busy professionals and college co-eds. If you’re in business where image matters, LinkedIn might be more to your liking. Social networking of any kind can be a huge benefit. In an artsy profession like music or interior design? There are social networking sites where you’d fit in and you are encouraged to participate.

But there have been negatives to follow from social networking as well. People have lost their jobs due to what was placed in profiles. People have not been hired for certain jobs because a potential employer conducted a background check and discovered something they felt was incompatible with employment by the firm. Now, college students are starting to feel the fall out as well.

Social networking is about relationships. Building for now, and building for the future. But when you are involved with an organization that has its own reputation to consider and you want to maintain your relationship with that organization, it might be to your own benefit to consider their concerns. Otherwise, you may find yourself without a job or college education.

Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins, one of the chief writers at Mashable, laments the lack of advertisers in podcasting. Does that mean podcasting isn’t a viable business model?

I don’t think so. It may be difficult to get advertisers, or sponsors, for your podcasts, but I don’t think it’s impossible. Even if you can’t profit from the advertising, you can turn your podcasts into a marketing vehicle. Contrary to popular opinion, viral video marketing hasn’t killed podcasting. It’s just one more medium and you can use it to effectively market your business. Here are some ideas to help you understand how podcasting can be used as a marketing tool:

• Produce a weekly podcast radio show that covers important changes in your industry.
• Make an instructional podcast as a free download for your customers. This won’t work for every business. But it could work for yours. This will work well if you have a good voice for audio, you are not photogenic or amenable to video marketing, or your topic doesn’t fit in well with the video visual presentation format.
• Interview someone in your field who is prominent and has a name. If you find the right person to interview, you might be able to find a sponsor for the podcast who will pay you just for your time. Or you can share the podcast with others in your industry and allow them to download, distribute or use your podcasts any way they like as long as they give you attribution.

There are any number of ways you can use podcasting, but the most powerful seems to be as a free distribution vehicle for your audio content. Advertisers or no advertisers, if you can get new targeted traffic to your website using podcasts then why wouldn’t you?

So social marketing will be bigger than ever this year. YouTube for one will pave the way for newer and more viral video superstars. Being one of the more effective marketing techniques in the Internet world, video marketing is said to be very SOCIAL because Web 2.0 has allowed such to be easily shared.

If your company still has not got into video marketing, then 2008 is the best time to start YouTube-ing. Notice that I only refer to YouTube because it is for me, the best video sharing website.

I’ve gathered some of the best YouTube tips everyone can benefit from. Some tips are more than a year old but can still be very effective. Others are simple tips yet very direct to the point.

25 Effective YouTube Tips:

1. Lip-synching. Remember those 2 Asian singing Backstreet Boys? Imitate them!
2. Animals do the funniest things. Animals are always cute when they “say” and do the funniest things. Start with your pet iguana.
3. Have an original idea no-one else would bother to do. So this can be quite a challenge but I am sure you have lots of unique ideas on your mind. All you have to do is make them a reality.
4. Fight strangers in the street. There are a few masochists out there who’d love to see more and more people get bruised and hurt. But don’t do this seriously. Act and just do it for fun.
5. Get your camera phone out at gigs. Help those who couldn’t afford to watch Justin Timberlake by taking a video. The day after a concert, people will surely be searching for such videos. You can never go wrong.
6. Be good at videogames. Geeks will love you for this. Video game fanatics
7. Corrupt innocent childrens’ characters. Again, don’t take this seriously though. Make sure that only adults can view such videos. You don’t want to be banned.
8. Drink. Lots. Drinking games always get a lot of attention. Make sure that you have a friend who’ll look after you and press the record button once you start stripping.
9. Rip obscure Japanese cartoons off the TV. Similar to number 2. Anime fans will hate you but more YouTubers will dig your video post.
10. Make high-quality one-minute vids reviewing hot gadgets of the day. More and more people search for gadget reviews. Unboxing posts are popular but reviews will be more informative.
11.Create a Relevant, Informative Video. Stupid videos can be popular but nothing’s better than a video who teaches a thing or two about a hobby or interest.
12. Keep the Video Short. Three-minute videos are good. Five-minutes is long. While 10-minute videos seem like forever. Make your video short and crisp so viewers won’t get bored.
13. Select a Catchy Title and Thumbnail. Like blog posts, your video’s title must catch the attention of the public.
14. Embed Wisely. Learn how to embed. Add videos to your blogposts but make sure you do it right.
15. Promote “Fresh” Videos . Social marketing eh? The key to a popular YouTube career is to promote. Post shoutouts in all your social networks.
16. Choose Your Video Category Wisely. And just like blog posts, adding the video to a relevant category will definitely attract the right target market.
17. Target the “Most Viewed” Lists. Don’t be content with just having 30 viewers. If others can have more than a million views, so can you.
18. Ask Your Community to View Your Video. Tell the whole FaceBook community to view your video.
19. Ask Your Community to Promote Your Video. Tell your social friends to promote your video. Just make sure it is something worth sharing.
20. Ask Your Community to Promote Your Video on Social Media Sites. Word of mouth, rather, social media promotion will always be effective.
21. Have a plan. Write down your YouTube plans for the year. Five million views in a month? Not impossible.
22. Make your videos ’search friendly’. Effective SEO is still hot and will forever be the name of the game. And why do you think Google invested on YouTube if not for search purposes?
23. Think & act like your viewer. If you’re the viewer, or should I say, YouTube addict, what would you want to see?
24. Learn about video-editing. Poor editing skills kills. YouTube has this very simple editing feature that you can use. If you don’t dig web-based video editing, you can always trust your goold old Windows Moviemaker or Apple’s iMovie. You don’t need to be a programmer just to figure how to do a well-edited movie.
25. Get It going. Key here is to get viral! No, not the flu virus kind. The best way to a successful YouTube career is to market the video yourself.

These tips were compiled from the following websites:

Collactive
The Register
SEO Blog

The first Open Web Awards hosted by Mashable was a success. The awards night was a bit late since the winners were already announced last December 21, 2007. But still, it was a success and I’m hoping this won’t just be a first.

The conference was held yesterday January 10 at sunny San Francisco, California at the Palace Hotel. The whole Social Media and Web 2.0 community has finally got to recognizing the best of the best. A total of 250,000 votes were cast. Next year, I am certain it’ll be bigger— more nominations, more finalists, and hopefully more sponsors so the prizes will be bigger.

Here are the winners of Mashable’s first ever Open Web Awards.

1. PEOPLE’S CHOICE
Mainstream and Large Social Networks
Netlog

Applications and Widgets
WidgetBucks

Social News and Social Bookmarking
digg

Social Search
facebook

Sports and Fitness
SPORTME

Photo Sharing
VOIS

Video Sharing
Kaltura

Start Pages
iGoogle

Places and Events
myspace.com

Music
PANDORA

Social Shopping
ZliO

Mobile
Google Mobile

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
cafemom

3. JUDGE’S CHOICE
Mainstream and Large Social Networks
facebook

Applications and Widgets
Flock

Social News and Social Bookmarking
digg

Social Search
Mahalo

Sports and Fitness
ESPN

Photo Sharing
flickr

Video Sharing
YouTube

Start Pages
netvibe

Places and Events
Meetup

Music
last.fm

Social Shopping
woot!

Mobile
twitter

Niche and Miscellaneous Social Networks
FilmCrave

Websites like facebook and digg are lucky to have been awarded twice. I agree more with the Judge’s Choice than with the People’s Choice though.

Congratulations to the winners! Here’s to a more successful and social Web 2.0 and Social Media in 2008!

Google and Facebook, together with Plaxo recently announced that they will be joining the DataPortability Workgroup. The announcement was a sigh of relief for those people upset with the recent Facebook brouhaha.

You see, Facebook currently is making a lot of application programmers crazy by not allowing them to import their own data. While I think this can be good for the part of Facebook, it’s doomsday for the programmers. It’s like there’s really no going out.

Facebook has become so popular last year and now it’s turning to a prima donna. But good thing the announcement will somehow bring an end to the controversy. Atleast, excitement is building up.

However, it was a mere announcement. It’s not as if Facebook users and application developers can all out access the data they need right away. Let’s just wait and see.

Definitely a first for the largest search engine in the world, Google and YouTube is teaming up with Japanase electronics company Matsushita,maker of Panasonic, to create flat panel TVs that allow viewing of online videos via YouTube.

I know of using the TV set as the computer monitor to surf the Internet but with this one, Google, YouTube, and Picassa can be easily accessed with just a press of a button.

So there’s the Google Phone and YouTube viewing in iPhones. An internet-enabled TV could be a welcome addition to the pack. I can see social marketing making its way to local TV sets making advertising and marketing have a larger reach.

If built-in Internet TVs catch the attention of the public, then web social marketing has a very bright future. Imagine Web 2.0 experience right in your own living room with just a click of the remote. I bet there will be more and more couch potatoes.

It’s not that the increasing number of social networking sites is bad. In fact, the more the merrier right? But when a startup attempts to topple Google and is promoted with much hype then fails to meet the expectactions, then it can be very disappointing…a waste even.

Such is the case with Wikia Search. Why, even Aaron Wall and Michael Arrington agrees. The not-so-search engine brought about high expectations only to disappoint.

I could go on and on and on but very notable is the poor results. I honestly think that it will take such startups a long way before they reach Google status. Or maybe never.

If users are allowed to add keywords to their profiles, then perhaps any plain Jane can top Paris Hilton and Britney’s search results. I think that’s not good.People need relevant results and until Wikia Search thinks of a better algorithm, I shall still turn to Google for my everyday search engine fix.

So we’re done with the predictions. Looks like social marketing is here to stay. Better yet, is here to lead the way of Internet marketing. The YouTube boom and the sudden popularity of Facebook are just perhaps two of the most memorable successes in 2007. From Web 2.0, we are slowly moving to Web 3.0 and now there are talks about Web 4.0. It can be quite confusing to differentiate, but only one thing is clear : Internet marketing, whether SEO, e-mail marketing, and video marketing, will still be the fastest and most phenomenal means of marketing.

Traditional marketing will still be effective but more people will turn to their Macs and PCs instead of their newspapers and TVs. I agree with Blue Magnet that “social and search marketing is clearly leading the way together with e-mail and mobile marketing.” And I so agree with their Top 10 Internet Marketing Tips :

1. Optimise your website’s content. SEO is still important. If you still haven’t gotten to optimizing your site’s content, start now. Love your audience. Love Google.
2. Create a content development strategy for your website. Nothing’s better than having a good plan. Check if it’s time for you to change niche or directions.
3. Invest in a paid search (pay-per-click) campaign. AdWords or Overture. Choose just one expect more search traffic.
4. Publicize your website through article marketing. Doing PR work is not just for traditional media. Article directories and submissions will be good for your linkbuilding efforts.
5. Develop a social media marketing strategy. Into Facebook? MySpace? There are hundreds of social networks and bookmarks that allow you to share whatever you have.
6. Create a Company Blog. Enough said. Blog will be bigger this year so take time to develop a readable and interesting blog.
7. Experiment with video marketing. You’ll be surprised how videos can help. Why do you think Google bought YouTube in the first place?
8. Engage your audiences with web widget marketing. Widgets are everywhere. Why not join in the bandwagon?
9. Discover the benefits of mobile marketing. Your mobile phone will only get thinner and smarter but it will be one powerful marketing tool. Companies should learn how to do more effective mobile marketing.
10. Create an effective email marketing strategy. E-mails will still be effective this year. Make sure though that you think of different ways on how to catch the attention of your audience. Don’t make them look like they are ready to be sent to the Spam folder.

Honor, prestige, and wealth are the things a bloggie won’t bring you says the 2008 Bloggies website. But I say wrong. A great number of bloggers have been honored and have become rich all because of blogging. And as with my predictions for this year, more and more bloggers will get paid as blogging goes mainstream and even becomes more popular.

It’s a new year and that means another round of the blog awards. The 2008 Weblog Awards is an annual non-profit competition that determines the best of all blogs through nomination around the world.

Nominations are now open for the following categories:
Best Web Application for Weblogs
Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog
Best European Weblog
Best Latin American Weblog
Best Canadian Weblog
Best American Weblog
Best Photography of a Weblog
Best Art or Craft Weblog
Best Food Weblog
Best Fashion Weblog
Best Weblog About Music
Best Gossip Blog
Best Entertainment Weblog
Best Sports Weblog
Best Weblog About Politics
Best Computers or Technology Weblog
Best Topical Weblog
Best GLBT Weblog
Best Teen Weblog
Most Humorous Weblog
Best Writing of a Weblog
Best Group Weblog
Best Community Weblog
Best-Designed Weblog
Best-Kept Secret Weblog
Best New Weblog
Lifetime Achievement
Weblog of the Year

If you’re going to nominate SocialMarketingJournal, do so with the “Best Topical Weblog.” There’s always a first.

I can’t believe it’s SEOmoz. You’d think they’d know better. Well, it’s a lesson for the rest of us.

If you’re going to post a video to YouTube and embed it on your blog then make sure it’s available. There’s no sense in posting a video only to have it removed then your blog content is useless because it relies on a multimedia presentation that once existed on another website.

I don’t know why the video isn’t available, but SEOmoz only posted this blog post yesterday. Who knows how long the video had been posted before that. But it isn’t available now. Just click on it as if you want to see the video. It’s all gone. Bad, bad, bad.

And I like what one visitor had to say, obviously while the video was still available:

It certainly sound interesting, but the one thing I would add even without watching is that I think it’s important to differentiate viral marketing & linkbait - they’re not the same thing.

Yes, that’s true. Viral marketing and linkbait are two different things. But both can be ruined by a good foible.

Social bookmarking is a necessary part of blogging. It is something every blogger should devote an hour or two per week. I recommend setting up social bookmarking accounts at a minimum of three social sites, and preferably at five or six. Fifteen minutes per day at each site is all it takes to keep the social ball rolling.

I don’t always feel compelled to bookmark my own sites, however. I’ll spend one day looking for friends to invite into my network and approving friends who have invited me. Then the next day I might focus on finding interesting stories that I like. If you bookmark your own stuff too much then it will look like you are a publicity hound and no one will pay attention to you. So I only bookmark blog posts that I write that I think will have super mass appeal or that I think will hit a particular target market hard.

For instance, if I think my StumbleUpon friends will like a certain story really well but the Digg clan only so-so, then I might bookmark that blog post at StumbleUpon but not at Digg. Then when I write something that I think my Digg friends will salivate over I’ll bookmark that one there. But generally I bookmark at least three times other people’s stuff to my own so that I don’t look like the mouse caught with the cheese.

If you’re involved in social networking you might have to fight off advertising this year as advertisers are trying to figure out a way to get to your eyeballs. Of course, if you’re an advertiser then you might be sexing up those eyeballs with your own ads. There’s just one catch - how?

Yes, there are a lot of people involved in social networking and from the way it looks right now, this will only grow. So advertising prospects are looking pretty good for advertisers right now. The problem is, many social networkers don’t like advertising. They’re at the social networks to network, not be advertised to. So even if they see your ad the chance of them clicking on it is pretty slim.

The challenge for social networks this year will be to figure out a way to sell advertising to advertisers that the networkers on their sites will tolerate. The risk for the networking sites is the possibility of losing visitors if they feel they are just a person to be marketed to. And that’s always a risk with an online website of any kind. The content and its benefits must outweigh the obtrusiveness of the advertising. Otherwise, your credibility will head south.

Not to Facebook: Sell advertising, but make your ads subtle.