With over 500 million active users, sites like Facebook and Twitter are re-defining how we use the internet and providing great opportunities for cost-effective viral marketing. Check out these resources to find ways that you can utilize these sites to get additional exposure.

Professional Services | Setting Up Shop | Going Deeper

Social Networking: Professional Services

• Social Networking Services from DonSchaefer.com - If you don't have the time to dedicate to the setup process outlined below (or if you simply don't feel comfortable doing it yourself) and would like someone to help you get started, please review my social networking services and contact me - I'll be happy to help.
• A1 Social Media - While the below tools will help you get started, they are by no means a substitute for an experienced social media marketing company. Using Facebook, Twitter, and other services to their fullest potential requires constant attention and interaction from an experienced professional. A1 Social media specializes in exponentially increasing/managing your online exposure through the use of social media.

Social Networking: Setting Up Shop

• Create a Facebook Page - This is usually a good starting point for getting a presence in social networks. Different from a normal Facebook profile, Facebook pages are specifically geared towards businesses, organizations, brands and public figures (artists,musicians,politicians,etc.) who want to have a presence on facebook. Simply click on the link, select which type of page you want to create & follow the directions from there.
• Create a Twitter Account - Another popular social service that many people are using (although not quite as many as facebook), Twitter provides a way for you to delivery quick updates (known as tweets) to your followers.
• Use Facebook to Automatically Update Twitter - If you don't like the idea of having to log into multiple websites to maintain your social presence, don't worry - you can actually set up your Facebook account to automatically update your Twitter account with your Facebook posts. Bottom line: even if you never want to use Twitter, it won't hurt you to set up an account, link it to your Facebook page and let it run itself.
• Create a LinkedIn Profile - If you and/or your business do not yet have a presence on LinkedIn, it's worth strong consideration. As the "Facebook for Professionals", LinkedIn provides valuable business-oriented ways for individuals and organizations to connect with each other. Whether you're looking to connect with other professionals in your industry, looking for another way to advertise your services/resume, job-hunting, or recruiting, a membership with LinkedIn can have an impressive array of benefits.
• Use Twitter to Automatically Update LinkedIn - Do you have a LinkedIn profile set up, but don't feel like posting updates to it? Well, if you've set up a Twitter account, you can use it to automatically update your LinkedIn status. By extension, if you've set up Facebook to automatically update your Twitter account, then you can essentially update all 3 sites with a single Facebook post! Don't want all of your Facebook/Twitter posts to appear on your LinkedIn account? No problem. By default, LinkedIn is actually set up to only post Tweets that have the text "#li" or "#in" included in them. For example, once LinkedIn has been linked with your Twitter account, a post that reads "Hello everybody! #li" would get shared on LinkedIn while a post that read "Hello everybody!" would not. If however, you'd like LinkedIn to share ALL posts, you can edit your settings to accomplish that as well.
• MailChimp Email Marketing - Design, send, and track email marketing campaigns for free!

Social Networking: Going Deeper

• Add a "Share This" Button to Your Site - Add a single button that will allow your website visitors to share your website on a wide range of social networking services including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, Myspace and a number of others. Just follow the instructions and copy and paste the code when you're done!
• Implement a FanGate on Your Facebook Page - Thanks to WildFire, you can now implement a FanGate (those handy things that force people to like your page before being able to view certain Facebook content) freely and easily.
• Run Facebook Contests Legally for Free! - Considering running a Facebook contest to attract a higher fan base? Read through all of their terms first, and you'll find that you're actually not allowed to do so without their prior written approval and at least $10,000 of Facebook advertising fees. How do you get around this? Well, rather than implementing the contest yourself, you can use a Facebook contest app (such as the ones available from WildFire, NorthSocial, or OfferPop). What I like about OfferPop though is that they have a tiered pricing structure that allows you to do free campaigns as long as you have less than 500 fans. After the initial 500 though, you'll unfortunately have to pay no matter what service you use.
• Add a Facebook "Like" Button to Your Site - While creating a Facebook page provides a great way for you to interact with Facebook users, your ultimate goal is to drive them to your website and convert them into customers. With that said, the Facebook "Like" button provides a way for users to share your actual website. When a visitor to your site uses the button, their friends see the link to your website and are able to navigate directly to it. This provides an additional (and more direct) method of Facebook exposure.
• Add a Facebook "Like Box" to Your Site - Want to display your Facebook updates directly on your website? Adding a Facebook "Like Box" allows you to publish your Facebook updates directly on to your website, as well as gives your site visitors the ability to "Like" your Facebook page without leaving your site.
• Finding Your Facebook RSS Feed - Want to grab the RSS feed generated by your Facebook page and display it somewhere else without using the Facebook Like Box? This tutorial will show you how to get your Facebook page's RSS feed url.
• FeedWind RSS Website Widget - If you're looking to display your Facebook book posts without using the Facebook Like Box or you'd like to display an RSS feed from your favorite industry news source, this free and customizable widget that you can install on your website allows you to do just that.
• RSS Graffiti - If you want to manage/publish additional RSS feeds (Whether it be from your own site, a Wordpress Blog, or a video sharing site like Vimeo) to your Facebook page automatically, RSS Graffiti gives you the tools to do so. Also good if you want to automatically publish the posts from your Facebook business page to your Facebook personal profile for extra exposure.
• TwitterFeed - If you want to manage/publish additional RSS feeds (Whether it be from your own site, a Wordpress Blog, or a video sharing site like Vimeo) to your Twitter account automatically, you can use TwitterFeed to do so.