Using social media for advertising purposes can be of benefit, but it is more likely to prove effective if excessively promotional techniques are avoided. Social media web sites include such services as YouTube, Wikipedia, Del.icio.us, and MySpace. Here are some more details on using particular types of social media to your benefit.

VIDEO SHARING: Web sites like YouTube are often used to promote other sites, usually by displaying the site’s address at the bottom of a video or at the end of it. They can also benefit efforts to market a particular product by showing it in action. A few marketers use YouTube to host openly promotional videos linked from their sites as well, thus reducing bandwidth costs. A drawback to using this method is that it is somewhat time-consuming and requires audio/video recording equipment, along with relatively recent computer hardware.

ENCYCLOPEDIA: Using the “External Links” or “References” sections of social media online encyclopedias (like Wikipedia) to add a link to your web site is another way of using social media to benefit your promotional efforts. You can also add a new encyclopedia page about your company or product, but biased information should be avoided; it will also have to be periodically monitored to see if others make unfavorable changes. For the best effect, efforts aimed at using this type of social media to your benefit should be carried out in the context of making a positive, useful contribution to the system.

NETWORKING: Some companies create a profile at one or more social networking systems (especially MySpace) to promote their businesses. However, automated or bulk promotional methods should be avoided on social networking sites; this can result in account deletion, or (in severe cases) legal action. MySpace also has a job search feature, which businesses can use to benefit their employee-finding efforts. To list a job on it, follow instructions provided on the “Submit Feed” page at simplyhired.com.

BOOKMARKING: Using social bookmarking services for your promotional efforts is another option, including sites such as Sphinn, Furl, and Digg. It is more effective to submit your site’s recent informational or entertaining pages, rather than pages which are specifically designed to sell a product or service. It’s also to your benefit to submit links from other interesting web sites, and to avoid posting links from the same site excessively, to prevent being labeled a “spammer”. This technique requires less effort than using the above-mentioned methods.

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