Social media is an easy way to connect with people on a personal level. If your website serves as your online business card, then social media can be a form of online greeting card, providing you with a more personal presence on the Internet and allowing you to interact with clients individually.

When done properly, social media is a fun, targeted way to reach your audience on a personal level with a wide range of positive results for marketing, search engine rankings, and traffic. Here’s a basic overview of the most popular methods and how to use them.

Blogging

Adding a blog to your website provides a personal voice to your business and allows you offer your audience useful information. It can even help your website rank better in search engines. It’s also the most time consuming method of social media and the most difficult.

Before starting a blog, come up with a plan. What kind of information do you want to provide to your visitors? Will you have time to write original content for your blog several times a week? Are you or someone on your staff comfortable enough writing to develop quality content? If the answer to these questions is yes, then a blog is a perfect start for your social media campaign.

If you’re ready to build your blog, keep these guidelines in mind: don’t blog from an outside website like WordPress or Blogger. Your blog should be a part of your website (http://www.yourdomain.com/blog), not part of an outside website (http://yourdomain.blogspot.com). Write fresh, original content regularly (at least three times a week), and keep blog posts under 500 words each.

Facebook

Facebook is the largest social network on the Web. The website boasts more than 200 million active users with more than half of them logging on at least once a day. And it’s not just kids, either. More than two-thirds of users are out of college, and the fastest demographic is 35 years and older. If you’re not already a part of this huge community, now is the time to join.

The way Facebook differentiates between people and businesses can be confusing. Facebook does not allow businesses to build personal profiles. You have two options for promoting your business: building a business profile page and creating a group for your business. Use the page as a central hub for information about your business on Facebook, and use the group as a forum where fans and friends can interact with you and each other.

Remember, profiles are for people; pages are for businesses. Your business page will need to be connected to a personal profile if you want to reap all of the benefits of Facebook. Build your personal profile first, and keep it business appropriate. Then connect a business page to your profile.

Facebook is people oriented. The only way it’s going to work is if you’re willing to get involved in the conversation. Build a personal profile, seek out friends in your target audience, and participate in groups related to your industry.

For more information on Facebook pages, read Facebook’s help section for businesses at http://www.facebook.com/advertising/#/advertising/?pages.

Twitter

Twitter (http://www.twitter.com) has quickly grown to become one of the most powerful social networking tools on the Web. According to data compiled by Neilson Online, Twitter reaches more than 13 million people in the United States each month. It’s also the social networking tool that many novices have the hardest time using. Twitter allows users to broadcast short, 140-word messages to other users who “follow” them.

It’s no use if your target demographic isn’t using Twitter. Do some research to determine if you can reach your audience through Twitter. Use the search tool (http://search.twitter.com) to search for terms related to your industry and find people who are talking it. Start following them and they’ll often follow you back. Use Twitter to share useful industry information, personal messages, and news about your business. If you have a blog, link it to your Twitter account so your followers will be automatically notified of new posts.

Initiate conversation about your brand, listen to what people are saying about your company, and be proactive in responding to @ replies and direct messages. Offer information that customers and other people in your network will find interesting — not just marketing and PR speak. Don’t toot your own horn too much, bombard users with links, or repetitive marketing messages. Just like any conversation, these common mistakes will make you boring or annoying to followers.

This is by no means a complete list of social media sites that can help promote business. There are hundreds of other sites and social networking tools. Social media marketing is like any other marketing: different tactics work for different businesses.

Spend some time exploring these websites to determine if they can work for you. Come up with a strategy for how to implement these tools and integrate them with your current marketing efforts. Be sure you’re using a network that your target audience is using.

If you’re unsure of where to begin, Internet marketing consultants can help you come up with a strategy, set up your profiles, and learn to use these tools effectively. Sage Island Interactive Marketing Agency offers a full range of social media consultation services from blog strategy and design to social networking training. Let us help you find the right social marketing approach for you!

Despite the fact that the President’s campaign staff was smart with social media throughout the campaign, I was still a little skeptical about how the new administration would utilize social media methods — particularly the blog. Would it end up being a glorified PR page with nothing but press releases and no real social engagement?

Today they proved me wrong with the nation’s first ever official White House liveblog of President Obama’s town hall meeting in Ft. Myers, FL. The up-to-the-minute updates included quotes from the speech, snippets of conversation between the President and the crowd, and links to other pertinent information.

The White House liveblog has taken ordinary PR one step further to real interaction and engagement. Citizens who couldn’t be at the townhall meeting could experience official live updates directly from the administration.

I’d still rather get my news from a trusted, unbiased news source (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were also liveblogging the events yesterday and today as well as a countless other independent political and news bloggers), but it’s still nice to see the administration utilizing social media to its full potential to interact with the American public.

Before you rush out and start a blog, though, there are several steps to make sure you’re doing it right. Blogging is effective, but if you do it wrong it can be a waste of time at best and a PR disaster at worst.

Here’s how to get started and stay on the right track:

Slow down

As a self-proclaimed blogaholic, I know how exciting starting a new blog can be. I’ve done it myself about 50 times. The problem is, when you start a blog without planning, organizing your thoughts, and researching, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Too many blogs start out with five posts a day and dwindle to a post a week before they eventually stop updating at all. Don’t let that happen to your business blog.

Research

Start by reading as many blogs in your industry as possible. Add them to a blog reader (I like Google Reader) by clicking the “subscribe” button. Stay up to date with what others in your industry are writing, and be familiar with how they maintain their blogs.

Plan

After spending some time reading industry blogs, sit down and make a serious plan for yours. It’s not enough to know your industry. You have to plan a purpose for your blog. Do you want to share information or expertise? Who is your audience, customers or other businesses? This information will dictate how and what you write. Be sure you know the answers before you start.

Personalize

Don’t run your business blog from a free blogging platform (like www.domain.blogspot.com) or from a separate domain. Add it to your current domain in a subfolder (www.yourdomain.com/blog). WordPress is probably the most popular blogging platform because it’s free and relatively easy to use, but there are a ton of other options such as Moveable Type, TypePad and Drupal. Setup can be pretty technical. If you’re not comfortable setting it up yourself, may I suggest a professional?

Design

Don’t just use the default design template. Your blog is an extension of your web site and your company; it should look professional. Blogging platforms are built for customization. Play with different designs to make your blog look professional and fit with the design of your web site. You don’t want visitors to feel like your blog is a separate site.

Post

The more you post, the better. Keep reading other industry blogs, actively seek out post ideas, and make notes of interesting things that come to you throughout the day. This can be easier if you get several people in your company involved. You’re immersed in your business all day every day; now is your chance to share all of your ideas.

Edit

This is the most common mistake I see in business blogs. Your blog should be maintained and edited by a writer. If several people contribute, designate one person with writing and editing skills as editor to maintain consistency, grammar and spelling, and overall message. Content is the most important aspect of any blog, and yours should be professional and well written. It’s not enough to post frequently — quality outweighs quantity, grammar and spelling count, and consistency is essential.

Participate

Remember all of those industry blogs you read to get started? Don’t stop reading them now! Network with other bloggers in your industry, seek inspiration from their ideas (but don’t use their ideas without linking back to them and NEVER copy and paste their posts into your own blog), and participate in the conversation. Comment on interesting posts. Not only will this get your name out into the community, but your comment will include a link back to your blog and increase your traffic.