When we consider social sites we automatically think of Facebook, MySpace or perhaps Bebo. Social media sites include YouTube and Flickr. There are many social bookmarking sites that can be used to deliver traffic to your sites.

Digg and StumbleUpon are the two most popular sites although del.icio.us is is also well respected. These are not the only sites around. The following bookmarking sites could well be worth a visit depending on the genre of your site.

Reddit: this is one of the social bookmarking sites that relies heavily on your interaction within the community. In fact if you don’t have the time to invest on this site then you will not get the most from it. Reddit really is a social networking site - the emphasis is on the networking. The more you network the more successful you will become.

De.lirio.us: this site is very similar to del.icio.us - in fact you can import your data from del.icio.us if you wanted. De.lirio.us works in a similar fashion to del.icio.us although when submitting a post, you need to use your own tags - but then you already use tags don’t you?

Linkagogo: a site that is perfect for novices. It is easy to use and easy to get a good understanding of. Whilst no where near as big as some of the other sites, sometimes smaller is better - there is certainly less competition and as the site grows popularity, so too will your authority as an ‘old hand’.

These are just three social bookmarking sites that could be used to bring in new traffic. The keys to these sites include good tagging and good networking skills. The more you network the more authority you will gain.

One aspect of social marketing which every business owner should be aware of is that it’s completely free. However, the most preventable marketing mistake that a business can make is to focus to heavily on themselves, their product or their service.

Don’t get me wrong, social marketing is all about promoting, but it is how you promote that matters. Social sites are, by their definition, places where people meet to socialize. They don’t want products shoved at them from all directions. What they do want to hear is what you can do for them.

Solving questions or providing solutions to problems will win you many fans and should be the starting point for any social marketing plan. Gently promoting your product or service along can be done if it is part of the solution. Social media can be a great vehicle for releasing new products, again if you can feed the ego’s of the members of these site.

Many sites don’t approve of open promotion, or the social marketing of products or services, and for good reason. The focus on many of these sites is to provide a forum where people can meet and socialize. People in these situations will naturally discuss anything and everything. It is through these general discussions that you can develop your own following.

If you really want to capitalize on the wave of traffic that flows through many of these sites then you could purchase open advertising on a pay-per-click basis. To date many of these campaigns have failed. The reason behind these failures comes back to the nature of the sites. People are gathering to socialize and share stories, not buy. Social marketing needs to be subtle.

Find the knack of delivering your social marketing strategy in a subtle way and you will find success. The number one rule for social marketing success, answer the question, what can I do for you? Social networking will be so much easier.

Web page design is becoming more important as each day goes by. StumbleUpon joined the thumbnail team earlier this month with thumbnails of stumblers favorite web sites displayed in their profiles.

It is becoming a trend that I feel will only spread further since many members of social networking sites feel more comfortable seeing images. StumbleUpon provides users with two options, either grid or list.

Your web page may soon become your social brand with thumbnails appearing like foot prints behind either your activities or your social friends. Until now, web pages have been designed for the benefit of visitors and search engines, you may now need to consider the thumbnail appeal of your site. Social sites like StumbleUpon are not shy about the size of your thumbnail either. In past thumbnails were very small, these days they are a reasonable size with good clarity.

If your web page is not up to scratch then perhaps it is time to do some housekeeping. Put on a pretty face for all those thumbnails that are going to continue to appear on sites like StumbleUpon. Your thumbnail is now a part of your social marketing face - capitalize on it.

Did you know you can now host your videos on Flick? Flickr have incorporated video streaming onto their site and you can now save up to 90 seconds of video per file. In other updates the storage capacity for each photo has been increased to 20 mb for pro members and 10 mb for free members.

[source]….you know that Flickr is all about sharing photos that you yourself have taken. Video will be no different and so what quickly bubbled up was the idea of “long photos,” of capturing slices of life to share

As can be seen, Flickr primary aim is to get short videos of ‘life’. I am sure we will soon find ways to incorporate marketing videos into the system.

I was discussing all things web related with a friend and his wife yesterday and one of the topics that came up related to her interaction on the web. Now she spends as much time as I do online, however she has a very small number of activities and sites she visits. Her partner has a small blog that relates to parenting issues.

One of the sites she does spend a lot of time on is a parenting forum type site. On this site she has a lot of authority ranking in the sites top 20. When you consider there are over 10000 registered members, being in the top 20 is nothing to sneeze at - in fact she is now an administrator. What does this have to do with social networking? Good question.

Many months ago she invited me to join and I did, however I only pay passing attention to the site, mainly having a quick peek when she points something out to me. Our discussion yesterday centered around the types of discussions and questions that get asked. I had a closer look today and discovered that, despite being a parenting site, everything was discussed, even politics. Not only that, members quite often sent external links to each other. Now there is a social networking opportunity if ever I saw one.

These types of sites are good for getting feedback on various issues including products. Over time you can also drop links to your own sites - so long as you don’t spam. Social networking opportunities are everywhere now. Treat the sites as ’social networks’ first, and marketing issues second.

Social marketing has become an important aspect of general web promotion activities and the first question most people ask is ‘where do I start’. The answer is easier said than done.

Research is the key to any social marketing campaign. You need to spend time visiting the various social sites in an attempt to determine where your potential customers/readers/visitors hang out. Once you identify those sites and the areas within those sites, then you can start to target your efforts.

Bloggers are particularly bad in this respect. They tend to hit as many sites as possible and often take a scattergun approach - if I spray enough about, I am bound to hit some targets. The scattergun approach is often caused by time, if you are targeting six or seven sites, you simply do not have the time required to network effectively within each one. Unfortunately that approach can lead to some negative aspects for social marketing.

You do need to target more than one site, however if you can identify where your ‘market crowd’ is then you can avoid the scattergun approach and spend quality time developing your image within that site. Social marketing is after all dependent on developing a good reputation.

Social marketing is about finding your target audience and wooing them. This takes time and patience however the rewards can be very satisfying. Your target group will not come to you unless you can get to them and that is what social marketing is all about.

I notice many individuals, when they first decide to try social networking or social marketing, simply trying to hard. The end result is that they lose all credibility before they have even started. Sometimes, a little reverse psychology can work wonders.

Some social networking sites thrive on interaction as do forums. The art of reverse psychology on these sites is to get in and participate; offer suggestions; provide solutions to problems; perhaps even refer to websites blogs - but no your own. In fact, you don’t mention your own web site, blog or products at all.

You will quickly build credibility and a ‘friend’ list based purely on your interaction. It wont take long for someone to ask what you do; do you have your own website or blog? When they come to you, you can start to promote - either your site or your products. People are always curious and when they see someone putting in to a social networking environment without taking out - they ask questions.

If they don’t ask questions, then wait until you have a reasonable credibility following then slowly start to promote your products or websites. The premise here is that on social networking sites, you promote yourself first and your product or web sites last.

I am sure you have heard it a million times before - it is all about trust. Earn the trust and the rest becomes easy. Social networking - don’t be impatient, try some reverse psychology.

Podcasting has rapidly become an integral part of the internet with many companies using the technology to deliver the same message to thousands of people. One of the features of a podcast is that it can be created and delivered automatically.

Many users sign up to receive podcasts automatically from their favorite site. Give them a reason to listen to yours and they may well sign up to receive it. Podcasting your products is not going to win admirers, create a series of how to’s or question and answer type podcasts and you may hit on a winner. Leave a link to the podcast on your site and it may draw listeners many months after its release.

Podcasts can easily be distributed using online ads, directories, websites, RSS feeds and emails. They are easy to record with a minimum of equipment and software. Find a quiet room with reasonable acoustics and you are set to go.

When creating a podcast, keep in mind that it should be targeted towards your potential customers and what their needs are. A good introduction to your business is important and you may well add a short description of your services or products. Stay focused on how your services or products can help your customers and what your business can do for them.

Podcasting gives Internet users the ability to do listen while doing other things as the files can be downloaded to any MP3 player. If a potential customer is busy and not able to sit at a computer for hours, they are most likely to download the podcast for later use.

There is good evidence that podcasting is becoming an effective marketing tool and that it will only grow stronger and more successful in the future. As the sales of mp3 players continues to increase and more people become familiar with the Internet, old methods of marketing are disappearing into the background.

Podcasting is offering a quick, easy and inexpensive way to reach thousands of customers. Given the inexpensive and easy creation options, podcasting should be considered by all webmasters looking to add to their marketing strategies.

YouTube is one of many multi media social content sites that can be leveraged to increase traffic to your web site. These sites provide space to store multi media files like video clips and photos. It is simply a matter of knowing how to use these sites to increase your traffic.

If you sell products through your web pages, have you thought of developing short videos or taking photos of your products. Videos can be on any subject, however ‘how to’ type videos work particularly well. Open an account at YouTube or any of the other social content sites and upload your videos (or images) with accurate descriptions.

Consumers are now using social content sites to find information or help for products they are intending to purchase. YouTube provides a good search interface that enables users to find what they are looking for. Some of the searches they make include ‘how do I’ type questions. If your video provides a solution, they more likely to also visit your site.

Using social content sites can serve two masters. You are providing information for YouTube users (or which ever site you decide to use); you are also acquiring an offsite storage facility that reduces the load on your own servers.

An added benefit is the opportunity to include these videos (or images) into your web or blog pages when required. Search engines index sites like YouTube and include the content in their search results. Whilst it may be a three step process; search engine to social content to your site; internet users are familiar with the process and often follow through. When they do, they arrive on your site with a purpose - to buy or for more information.

Leveraging social content sites is the future, particularly if you are targeting under 30 year olds. They have adapted to the technology quickly and now often use it as their primary source of consumer information. Satisfy that need by providing the information that they are looking for. YourTube is one site that helps to provide the link between those seeking information - and those that have the information.

It’s available, it’s free, it’s popular. Social content is in demand and YouTube feeds that demand. You just need to feed YouTube.

It appears many of the top online marketing people do. And its not only the marketing guru’s that twitter. From news stories it seem that UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown was in the habit of ‘twittering’ whilst on his recent trip to the US - perhaps not Gordon Brown personally, but certainly members of his entourage.

Twitter has not appealed to me to date, perhaps because I haven’t had the time to sit down and really look at it. From what I heard, it seems to be growing rapidly in popularity with many influential people getting on board.

Social marketing is making its presence felt with more and more marketers getting on. They are learning to market their products - SMS style.

If you are out of the loop, Twitter enable users to stay in touch using short SMS style messages. The trend is growing with many businesses incorporating Twitter into their communications toolbox. I heard a recent radio interview where one of the Twitter proponents was discussing the writing of dedicated intranet twitter style software.

Since the rest of the world is getting on the Twitter roller coaster, perhaps its time I had a closer look. Tell me - do you Twitter? If so, any advice!

If you are a frequent user of YouTube you will know that they have some fairly strict conditions related to what you can and cannot do on the site. It seems that some of these restrictions are being eased.

Apart from copyright violations (that never expire), YouTube is giving most offenders a clean bill of health as of 16 April 2008. In the past, three violations in a 12 month period would see you suffer a YouTube sin binning. Under the changes:

[source - YouTube]What we’ve come up with is to temporarily mute users, so that they can still use the site and watch videos, but they can’t post new content. Right now it is set up to affect users who have two Community Guidelines warnings in a six-month period and will last two weeks.

Other changes include notifications. In the past a user was emailed with any warnings. However, due to spam filters often removing these notices, YouTube will now also advise the user the next time they log in. There will be no excuse to claim non receipt of any notifications.

The change is has been introduced to bring in a little fairness. Under the previous system, someone who committed a three breaches over 12 months were treated in the same manner as someone who committed the three breaches in a week. Breaches will now expire after six months.

To stay on top in the social marketing game you have to know what is going on around you. The best way to do that is by subscribing to those who are recognized as leaders, authorities and news makers within the social marketing niche.

You can subscribe to wither newsletters or RSS feeds through either the later arriving either by email or RSS reader. These subscriptions will enable you stay up to date with the latest news whilst providing you with the relevant information required to make decisions or put in place different social marketing strategies.

If you spend a lot of time undertaking social marketing the last thing you want is to have it all undermined because you haven’t stayed up to date. One of the keys to successful marketing is to beat the other guy to the punch, that is done by being one of the first to successfully react to changes in the marketplace or environment.

For this reason, make sure you also subscribe to content that comes from a broader or more generalized group of writers. This will also provide a more rounded view of the on line environment which will enable more relevant social marketing strategy decisions.

Subscription services are always free and it only takes minutes to scan information for value - those minutes could save you hours down the track when it comes to social marketing for your web site.

Small and large businesses alike are utilizing these networks to reach a worldwide spectrum of potential customers and are leveraging them at virtually no cost. It speaks of how the social networks enable a company to connect to consumers at a much more intimate level and allow fans of your products or services to spread the word rapidly.
It covers MySpace, building websites, blogging, using multimedia, tagging, social searching, content syndication, pay per click, revenue building and much more. Overall it is a great guide to get you started on how to begin your social marketing efforts. While you may not be able to do all of it on your own, you at least have a background on how to do it and can guide others to help you in your efforts. The book is worth the read and is written well for any reader!

Social networking is all about getting into some of the social networking sites then meeting and interacting with other users. If you use several different sites then you may find yourself having exactly the same conversation with the same ‘friend’, but on another site. It can get embarrassing if you don’t watch what you say.

Taking care of what you say is obviously one way to ensure you don’t get yourself into too much hot water. Even better, rather than creating a presence on each site, create an identity that is portable and moves across all the social networking sites that you intend using.

The first step is to create user names that are identical across all sites. This makes it easy for you to remember (can you image trying to remember 10 user names and the sites they attached too?). This makes it easy for ‘friends’ or contacts to find you. While creating your user name and profile, remain consistent. You will be surprised how many people will compare profiles across sites just looking to catch you out on anomalies. Finally, when undertaking a social networking campaign, stay consistent in your philosophy, views and statements across all sites.

One easy way to set up a social network is by planning your attack from the start. If you can identify a number of sites that your would like to develop a presence on, open them all at the same time in seperate tabs. Go through the setup process for each one using the same data (cut and paste comes in handy here) for each. Don’t hit that final submit button until you are happy the profiles and user names are identical (or as close as the sites will permit).

Smart social networking is about creating an online identity that many people can relate to. One word of caution - once you create this online identity, your reputation management needs to be spot on. One bad word on one site could spread like wildfire across all your social network sites.

The latest release from Facebook may be of interest to those involved in social marketing. Facebook have released a new feature called Facebook Lexicon which is similar to Google Trends.

Facebook Lexicon lets you see which words and phrases on popular on Facebook Walls. You are able to compare up to five different words or two-word phrases. The results are made available in the form of graph. Unfortunately you cannot get any deep data such as graphical or demographics, only a simple graphical representation.

Where it will interest social marketing efforts is that you will be able to identify what is ‘hot’ and whether or not your particular area of interest is popular. You may also be able to gauge whether or not you are having any influence when trying to increase the buzz around a particular keyword.

It will be interesting to see whether or not it does have an impact on social marketing strategies. Information like this can be very handy when planning strategies. By checking with the Facebook Lexicon you may find that where you have been using a word or phrase, just a slight alteration could bring it closer to the limelight giving your marketing activities a gentle push.

Facebook have more innovations in the pipeline so perhaps they are starting to ‘grow up’ and become more focused on what users want. Gone are the days when you can tell users what they can have - you either provide what they want, or they move elsewhere.