By Cranford B. Haynes

Thousands of businesses are using social media marketing to promote their businesses online. Most use one of the top three social media websites: Facebook, Myspace or Twitter. Social media Internet marketing can be a very profitable way to spread the word about your business.

Other than Facebook, Myspace and Twitter, the majority of social networking sites get fewer than one billion page views a year. The top three sites, in comparison, each receive over ten billion page views every year. The demographics of each site are slightly different. Facebook has primarily female users over age 35. Myspace caters to musicians and teenagers. Twitter's demographic is similar to Facebook's.

The market you are targeting will inform your decision about which social networking site to focus your efforts on. You can target the demographic you are aiming at on one of the big three networks or you can focus your efforts on attracting that same demographic on the lesser known networks, such as FriendFeed, Friendster, Gather or Ning, where there is less competition. The manner in which you go about social media marketing is essentially the same no matter which social network you choose as your first marketing project.

After registering your business, the first task is to complete your business profile and set up a fan page. A fan page will let you communicate directly with people who are 'fans' of your business. Make sure that you use your fan page well. Any advertising you do through the fan page needs to be subtle. Posting helpful audio, video, information about upcoming events, information about sales, your staff and even your customers can all be interesting to readers without being an overbearing advertisement.

Next, you might want to consider starting a group page for your business. A group page is appropriate for businesses that focus on a niche where people would be inclined to seek out others who are interested in the same thing. For instance, a World of Warcraft group would be a good group for a game business. A group is less for advertising and more as a place where similar people can talk about their interests.

Social media Internet marketing is a long-term venture. Before you embark on such a campaign, make sure you know what you are doing. This is not the place to "wing it." Because it is so difficult to recover from a poor start, you want to make sure you create a positive impression about your business from the beginning.

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