Social marketing is important to many Internet marketers.
But it is not as much as a selling tool as it is a tool for making contacts.
Don't become a pest always pushing some product.
Instead share your insights and friendship.
The social sites on the Internet have tremendous traffic.
Facebook and Twitter have many thousands of visitors day or night.
They are a hub of social activity where friends and relatives meet.
Also special interest are there to share information.
It is possible to meet thousands of people who you can follow or they can follow you.
So it is a community where people of like interest meet.
There are some things that are not suitable to social networking sites.
One is blatant selling.
People are not there to buy and they will not click on a link trying to sell them something.
It is OK to say that you have written an article or updated your blog or such, but stay away from the sales pitch.
Also, you can be banned from a social site by rude conduct, alarming photographs, profanity, and just being crude, rude and unattractive.
Once banned you are banned period.
I was banned from Yahoo Answers years ago.
They would never answer my emails so I have never figured out why.
But I think it was because I put a business URL under my answers.
My answers were top-rated but that was not a consideration.
I'm still trying to get re-instated.
The bottom line relating to social sites is that you better very carefully read the guidelines.
They say that "Birds of a feather, flock together.
" That is a good reason to join social sites and meet people just as it is to join forums and such.
You should have a good blog that you update a few times each week where people you meet can go to see what you are up to.
Just be sociable.
The word will get around that you are a nice person to know and that you do have a few things to share.
Oh! If you want to talk business-to-business, try LinkedIn.
Fly Old Glory!