Social media is one of those things you CAN live without, but it makes your online marketing life so much easier if you jump on the bandwagon. You don’t have to go crazy and obsess about all the social media you use, but you need to remember to pay attention to it too. It is an extension of your website, and therefore, an extension of you.

Getting the most out of your social media requires a little effort here and there. The most effort being at first, and then with a small amount of maintenance you can keep it going strong.

So first thing is first: you have your blog or whichever account, already started up. All of your information has been entered, names and URL’s and all that jazz. Now, you need to start building a network. How do we do this? We pick friends. Yes, we are going to be judgmental at first here, and only pick the ones that are beneficial. Don’t team up with someone who is going to spout defamatory remarks about you or the others on your list, but choose ones that will benefit your company/services. Friends with similar interests who know you will spread the word, and people/companies that are in your same field of interest is always good. People will find you through other companies if you stay close. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer, right? Also, you of course want to get people that would benefit from your resources, so forming an alliance with people in your target audience is really a great way to go. This is ultimately who you want to sell to, so grabbing them early is always good.

When you contact your friends who you have developed these relationships with, try to engage them in conversation. You don’t need to spend hours talking to these people, but if you need to send someone an email and whatnot, make it personal. Remember things about them, their interests and such and really involve them. There are so many cold automated computers out there doing jobs like this for us humans, it’s really important to get back down to the people. People appreciate the connection, and the time spent, even if it is only three minutes of your day. It shows them that you care.

Now, let’s make it easy for all of these new friends to spread the word to other people! Make it super-easy to share the information you’re supplying. Links, Retweets, Diggs, StumbleUpon, and all of those are great ways to make it easy. Try even installing a link that allows the person to just click it, enter someone’s email address, and send to them directly. This makes so fewer steps for the user, and makes it ultra easy for people to remember to share their new found plethora of information. Remember also, that even if you don’t have these buttons, if your content is quality, people will spread the word regardless. “Hey, have you been to this site?”

We’ve made it easy for our friends to spread the information, but do you have enough information to link to? What do you have to offer? White papers (PDFs), ebooks, books? What can you give these people that would make them want to spread the word? People love free stuff, so make it as free as possible. You’re more likely to get a larger number of visitors if it’s for free. Once you have to register to see anything, your reader possibilities decline quickly. People don’t like having to sign-up, so offer what you can without requiring that. Supply samples, teasers to the information they’re missing out on if they don’t. But, do you really need them to sign up? Unless you have a newsletter or they are actually buying something, there’s really no reason for it. You’ll have to assess your own site on whether it’s worth it or not.

To get your information to spread even further, encourage people to use tidbits of your articles, with links back to you. As long as everything is cited, you should run into very few problems. You might have to go as far as doing a “Terms of Use” agreement, that way they don’t just steal everything you have. Which may happen, so just be aware. There are people out there that take things that don’t belong to them, and claim that they are in fact their own. Be aware of it, but don’t be scared of it. If they’re taking your stuff and using it, it just means it’s good stuff, and therefore even more reason to protect it all. Stand up for what’s yours.

Remember, even after all of this, keep it real. Be professional, be businesslike, be responsible, be direct, but be a person. Remember you are dealing with people, especially in your social media setting, and they should be treated as though they are people. Add personal touches where you can and with who you can, and you’ll form a much stronger bond with more people than if you remain a robot in the background. Connect with people, as people.