By Hostway

Social bookmarking sites offer a free way to drive traffic to and raise awareness of your Web site. Social bookmarking is a way for people to save links to Web pages they like in the cloud and access them from any Internet connection. It also allows users to share bookmarked pages with each other, increasing its value to users and making it more attractive to marketers looking to gain traction with a viral marketing campaign. continue »

By Meredith Liepelt

According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social media, there are currently over 12 million users on Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another 17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and 49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target market falls within these demographics, actively participating on Twitter is probably worth your while. continue »

By Ron Knight

Twitter is a wildly popular microblogging service. It involves writing Tweets, which are short updates of a maximum of 140 characters that tell your followers what you are up to. Although your Tweets are technically supposed to answer the question, “What are you doing?” Twitter has moved far beyond that. Tweets are used to share stories, link to photos, promote content, break news and a whole lot more. Twitter has also become an incredibly important tool for social media marketing professionals. Here are 12 ways in which Twitter can be used in your social media marketing campaign. continue »

By Lauren Hobson

Most of us are well aware that the search engines frequently change their algorithms to improve search results for users (and foil spammers), which can make it challenging for small businesses just to keep up. But as Web technology continues to evolve, it also creates new opportunities for small businesses to improve their SEO strategies and boost their rankings as well. Social media (sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Technorati, Digg, etc.) provide an excellent opportunity for small businesses to not only promote their products and services online, but also to gain significant ground in the search engine results. continue »

By Hostway

Twitter is a useful tool for engaging your customers in a conversation and driving traffic to your Web site. Watch this video to learn how to:

• Send a tweet, retweet, @replay and direct message
• Build a following
• Search tweets by keyword

Video: Start Using Twitter for Your Business

By Adrian Dayton

I stumbled onto Twitter as a marketing tool completely by accident. I was looking for a way to promote a book I’m working on, and a friend suggested that I do two things: Start a blog and get on Twitter. continue »

Hundreds of millions of people have already created accounts with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, and thousands more are signing up every day. Chances are good that your target market is using those sites as a way to connect with people and brands. It’s a great time to create a profile for your business and use these sites to your advantage. continue »

Developed by students at Harvard University, Facebook began as a way for college students to connect. Eventually, membership was opened to anyone, and the numbers soared. As of this writing, the Facebook Web site claims more than 200 million active users—more than double the number of the former social media king, MySpace. continue »

Many marketers with an eye on social media have a great interest in Twitter because it’s quick, easy and effective. Often described as a mirco-blogging service, Twitter allows registered users to post 140 character messages, called “tweets” to their “followers.” continue »

Designed especially for professionals, LinkedIn is all about networking. You can connect with colleagues from your alma mater, past or current jobs and conferences or meet new people to add to your network. LinkedIn is not a mass marketing tool, but rather, a good place to build one-on-one relationships with customers, employers, suppliers, vendors, colleagues and industry leaders. continue »