Once all aspects of your on-line marketing strategy are in place it is now time to consider giving it the extra kick-start it needs to really put your site on the map. The latest craze to hit the internet is Social Media. You’ve probably heard about Facebook and MySpace but further to these are news aggregation sites like Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. MySpace probably has little to no benefit for your business at this stage but we will look at the other options in some detail.

On the surface Facebook is a social site that people visit and catch up with old friends on. But if you look a little deeper Facebook can help your business in a multitude of ways. The most obvious way is by setting up a Group that invites lovers of your businesss around the globe to join and discuss their passion. There is always space for more Facebook groups and if marketed correctly this could give you a strong foundation of regular internet users.

The other aspect to Facebook that would benefit your business is the use of Applications. Facebook Applications are basically small programs that people add to their Facebook homepage and it is the predominant way that people interact in this space. Applications usually have a hook that allows users to interact with their friends. An example of one popular application is the ‘Vampire Application’ which allows you to ‘bite’ your friends. The more friends you ‘bite’ the stronger your Vampire becomes. These novelty applications provide advertising and links to you site and if designed with the right hook can increase your traffic exponentially.

An even newer development in Social Media is the News Aggregation and Social Bookmarking. These sites allow users to post articles of interest to them and the rest of the community votes on the quality of the content. High Quality articles are voted to the front page which results in a massive influx of people visiting your site. To get to this stage does take time and only with the help of the members of respective communities (Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon etc.) will you achieve this.

Social Media is a passive form of marketing and needs to look as far from Marketing as possible. This may sound strange in a marketing report but people who use these sites are more about choosing what is right for them, not being told. As a result this type of marketing can be a little touch and go, but with the right content your site has the potential to become a serious player in the on-line world.