How much time do you spend each day on your social marketing efforts? An hour? 5 hours? all day? How do you know if all the efforts you are putting in each day lurking around on Twitter and Facebook. Are you a Google analytics nuts where you track every visitor to adjust time spent using all the various social platforms? The reality is that is no right or wrong answer when it comes to figuring out if you are spending too much or not enough time trying to communicate and build relationships with others on the various social platforms.

It all depends on what your goals are for trying to communicate online with others. If you are updating your status during dinner you might have a slight problem but if you are a business owner and each potential person you communicate with could lead into a potential client or business relationship than you do what you have to. At some point you might want to ask yourself just how many visitors and sales inquiries you are getting from spending 5 hours on Facebook each day. It is very important as a business owner to be visible on all these sites. Your audience is there, plain and simple so it is important for you to be there also. Even if you think Twitter is just a fad it could be a fad that sticks around for a few years and could potentially generate a great deal of traffic and potential for your growing business. You have to ask yourself how you are using your time. If you are a florist in Boston why are you spending half your day communicating and speaking with people in Alabama> Nothing against Alabama but the chances of a resident there landing in your shop to buy flowers is very slim. You might be able to spend half that time searching for people locally and trying to trigger conversations that way. Just make sure you are corresponding with the right people so you don’t find out down the road that you have been communicating with the wrong people.

Twitter has evolved into a cultural phenomenon very quickly. New social marketing related verbs have spawned just from the name of the website and it is growing in power every single day. Just like the days of MySpace when it first launched everyone wants to be envolved in the Twitter community. If you are still one of those business owners that doesn’t think it is right for your business you are most likely in denial. I drop updates into the Twitter account that we have and it doesn’t necessarily generate a great deal of conversation but when we look at our analytics account we see that we receive generous amounts of traffic to our site. All businesses should be on Twitter in some way. Here are 5 ways Twitter can help grow your online presence.

1. Following People: Research and find your competition on Twitter. Take a look at the type of people that are following them. Chances are it is your audience so start following them. Over time some of these followers will see and and check out your profile. Some will visit your site and some will just click and follow you. You now have the attention of that potential customer or client.

2. Promote Your Blog: Do you have a blog you write in everyday but are not sure exactly how to promote it. Try taking your blog posts and posting them in your Twitter account for everyone to see. This is a sure way to generate new traffic to your blog especially once you have built up a decent amount of qualified followers you will quickly see the amount of traffic to your blog build as well.

3. Twitter Directories: There are many Twitter directories out there since the birth of this giant social platform. Twitter directories are a great way for others to find your Twitter profile. Promotion will be important for others to find.

3. Real Time Search: Are you a service based business? With Twitters real time search ability you can attempt to track down other people talking about what you offer.

4. Conversation: Once you start generating conversations with people their list of followers will see who they are talking to and eventually make it to your profile. Once they are in your profile that could potentially be a new customer or client.

5. Link Building: At the bare minimum the act of building a profile for your business and filling out the profile areas completely is a form of link building for your business, even if you don’t use it that much.

Online social marketing networks have become a mega phone for people who have once been timid to be heard. Those who have had trouble speaking their mind or being vocal now have many social platforms to not only be heard but also seen. This has created a whole new way for businesses large and small to be found and explored. Many have had to learn the hard way though, with these powerful communication devices also comes a price to pay if not used correctly.

Many businesses have learned that word can travel very quickly through sites like Facebook or MySpace. So fast that once something is typed and published it is often to late to pull it back before the harm is done. What you may think is worthy of publishing a large group could tear apart online. If you have any irate customer or client trying to reach out to you on Twitter it is very important to handle it the right way. Remember many many people are going to see your response and they will quickly cast judgment on your business or your brand if not handled correctly. You must think long and hard when crafting together an approach for your business on the social platforms. One wrong step or interaction with a potential client or customer and you can quickly have a reputation management issue on your hands. Sites like Twitter where people can retweet responses things can quickly spread like wild fire. If you are a large or small business just venturing into the social platform space it will be important for you to put together a game plan on how you want to approach your communication. It is ok to take it slow at first and get your feet wet. test out various approaches on the various platforms before you find one that sticks with your business style. it is ok to develop different approaches for different social sites. The approach you take on Twitter will be vastly different than on LinkedIn or MySpace. Over time you will develop the right social marketing approach for you.

Have you ever thought about where we would all be without all the various social marketing and social networking websites in everyone’s lives? How would businesses interact with their community? What would people do most of the day in front of their computers? Do you think quality of life would be different? It would definitely get people out of the house a bit more.

Life would certainly be different with Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Social marketing and social networking websites have created a way for businesses and people to meet others much quicker than ever. Face to face networking events are slowly being replaced with these sites. Think about how many companies and organizations have spawned just over the last five years with the emergence of social marketing. It is amazing just how much it has changed life for many people. In the life cycle of this type of communication it is really only a drop in the bucket and there is no telling where it is heading. To be able to react and respond to large groups of people real time from your phone regardless of where you are. You can be on the back of a camel in the desert and let people on Twitter know. The power of communication has really changed. It is important to know that even though these websites are mammoth and worth billions of dollars they are still in their infancy stages. What would happen if Twitter and Facebook just disappeared? Most likely something new would take their place. The connection and desire for random people to let everyone know what they are doing at any given moment of the day is certainly growing. People want more.