Social Media has firmly rooted itself as a prime way in which data is shared between groups. With a social network for just about everything and seemingly new ones every day (Google+ anyone?), it doesn’t look that that will change any time soon. Here are five tips to maximize your social media presence:

1. Boost Linkability All too often, sites are “static” or stuck in the doldrums. When sites are not regularly updated and/or are merely used as a storefront, the information therein can easily become stale and outdated. In order to perform well in Social Media, sites must make themselves “linkable” by adding fresh content visitors are likely to share. Blogs, white papers, and industry news feeds are all a great way to accomplish this.

2. Simplify Bookmarks/Tagging The easier it is for your visitor to tag and/or bookmark your content, the more likely they are to do so. Conversely, if you don’t include any simple tagging or bookmarking options with your content, your visitors are likely to forget or simply not make the effort. Include Digg and del.icio.us buttons where appropriate, and be sure to use them internally as well.

3. Reward Inbound Linking There’s nothing like the thrill of (legitimate) inbound links and these little blue-underlined jewels are often a strong indication of a site’s overall success as well. The lift in rankings and search placement is also invaluable, so efforts should be made to encourage further inbound linking. Providing a simple method and clear rewards will certainly boost the desired behavior. You may want to use Permalinks as well as include a section for recently inbound-linking blogs. Often blog writers are looking for increased presence themselves, and visibility makes the situation win-win.

4. Set Your Content “On Tour” In contrast to so much of SEO, social media optimization is not about making tweaks here-and-there to your site. If you have portable content such as multimedia files and PDFs, submit them off to relevant sites with links back to your site. This will increase visibility and help drive traffic back to your site, while gaining potential followers.

5. Embrace Co-Creation Providing clear upfront guidelines about how others may (reasonably) use your content can foster relationships among networks. Aviary.com, a free online photo editor, takes this method to heart. By allowing users to build upon the works of others, a piece may begin to grow far beyond its initial base. Providing a widget to copy and paste excerpts, setting up an RSS feed, and other “get involved” type functionality can help drive further traffic back to the original content as well as solidify the platform for future mash-ups.

Generally, all of these tips can be summarized in one word: involvement. The more invested you can make your users in your content, the longer they will stick around and the more attention you will attract.

Facebook Places is essentially free word-of-mouth advertising for your business. Here’s how to get started.

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Most people think social media marketing just means Facebook marketing. As the 800 pound gorilla of the social networking space, it’s understandable that so many companies have turned Facebook into the hub of their social media marketing campaign. Both B2C and B2B companies have found great success with Facebook, seeing an increase in brand recognition, [...]

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