There is a new hype about advertising and spreading the word about your business. Old fashioned advertising doesn’t work, at least not like it used to. Placing an ad in the newspaper is just not enough. Now you put it in front of millions of people through social media marketing networks, and it is archived for years to come.

So, what is social media and how does it work? In short how can you use social media to grow your business?

Social Media is an interaction through web-based and mobile technologies; it is all those sites we use for fun and for business: Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, YouTube, LinkedIn and so on. Having a business advertised is no longer one-way and static technology; now you can create and distribute your content through the web using various social media options. Whilst there are potential costs, in the main it is free, not time consuming, easily accessible and interactive. Though simple as it is, it’s crucial that you invest some time and skills to work it to your advantage. One of the main attractions of social media in growing your business is that it gives small businesses and entrepreneurs the equal opportunity to make a big name along side already existing large and well-known corporations.

Social media comes in many forms Sell digital products – blog, microblog, social networks, media-sharing sites, social bookmarking and voting sites, review sites, forums and virtual worlds are only some of the most popular.

A blog is best described as writing articles or posts. Its software allows different social features that include blogrolls, subscriptions and comments making it ideal for marketing purposes.

Through blogs, a company speaks to its customers about the new and cool things it does. Posts are what make the blogs; they can be any length from few words to many pages but to make the most of it, sticking to one topic is crucial. The most important element of blogging is consistency. Making sure that you blog regularly by setting a clear goal of posting either daily, or weekly for a whole year. Long posts have to be structured in such a way that they include scannable items like images, lists and subheadings. Use comments made by readers as positive or negative feedback. Use permalinks or permanent links to link your blog to other social media platforms. Making sure your site image establishes authority, themes and designs as well as content is what attracts readers and makes your blog trustworthy to read regularly. Getting to know other bloggers in associated industries or your area of expertise increases visibility of your own blog. Use them to help grow your business.

Micro blogging is type of blogging that limits the size of posts to a certain number of characters. The best known is Twitter, which has a limit of 140 characters. It is easy to use and requires little investment of time, but it quickly creates buzz and insight. Through micro blogging you can promote your other social media content, which contains more news and information, informs about new blog posts and keep your readers in the know about your business. Having a good avatar and bio ensures an optimized following and tweeting, allowing the people you already know to tweet about your business for others that may be interested in your business news.

Social networks such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn allows you to build direct and personal relationships with your customers. While for people it is customary to create profiles, a company should create pages. Social networks offer a wide range of special features, which are important to use in order to have the best possible introduction of your company’s business. Make sure that you don’t just rebuild your website, offer content that is exclusive for social network. Interaction is the key component to all social media, through social networks your customers can create content about your company making it organic and more convincing. Another step to help grow your business.

Media sharing are sites that allow users to upload and share multimedia content. Available today through a wide range of digital cameras and camcorders, media-sharing has become extremely popular. Most known sites for media sharing are YouTube and Flickr.

In short, with media sharing you can grow your business by creating and distributing multimedia content to millions of viewers. As with all other social media, it is important to create a name that is short and easily searchable, high quality and eye-catching content making it likable to viewers and in the top of the media sharing search options