VirtuaClass

You always hear people talking about the importance of using social media sites like MySpace, Facebook, Digg and Stumble Upon (just to name a few) because there are literally thousands of social fronts to become a part of use for marketing purposes. I would suggest sticking with the ones that are fairly bigger and more well known until you really understand how social communities work.

I often get asked about how to really market on Facebook because it is so centered around college kids, and just does not have the normal feel of other social media websites. Also, Stumble Upon seems to be difficult for some to grasp (when it comes to marketing opportunities) My suggestion is simple and has two parts.

1. You need to do a better job with your Facebook profile page and letting people know who you are, what online communities you are a part of, and what websites are yours. For example, Facebook gives you opportunities to include what are called “mini feeds” that will automatically update your RSS feeds that you want to include. This gives you an amazing opportunity to get your blog posts, products, content and whatever else in front of all the Facebook users (and friends you have made) that come across your profile.

2. Target the right demographics by taking advantage of the advertising programs Facebook and Stumble Upon offers. Many do not realize the amazing advertising program right in front of you on these sites. If you click on http://www.facebook.com/ads and http://www.stumbleupon.com/ads you will see the advertising programs, but what you may not know at this point is that they will allow you to target specific genders, ages and pretty much anything else you want to. Why is this a big deal? Think about this, if you are selling baby goods and products for infants, then you can target women ages 18 - 35 (or whatever you want it to be etc) but you get my point, you can target the specific people that are most suited for your products, or whatever you are offering on your site.

This is probably one of the best marketing avenues (or methods) that you could pursue if you are trying to market on these two sites. They are pretty cheap too, because both advertising programs start at 5 cents a click. Talk about some amazing cheap traffic that is about as targeted as you can get.

I would also suggest that you make sure to build up your profiles on each of these sites including adding friends, voting for the stuff they like and take advantage of all the features these sites have to offer. You will be more successful with your social media marketing on Facebook and Stumble Upon by using these marketing methods mentioned above and to really know if you are seeing results you need to make sure you have a great web analytics software installed so you can actually track your traffic instead of relying on what they are telling you, or what you are assuming.