Social media are social interactive technologies which enable the creation or dissemination/production of ideas, opinions, interests, and various forms of human expression through virtual online communities and networks. Social Media include websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Flickr, MySpace, FriendFeed, and many others. These social media were originally used as a way for individuals to interact with one another on a shared basis, but over time they have become a highly effective marketing tool for businesses. Because of the popularity and ease of use these services are being utilized by many businesses to reach out to a much broader audience.

Businesses who have not yet begun to use social media in their marketing efforts should begin creating an account today. There are several platforms to choose from including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Friendfeed, Flicker, Flickr, Evernote, and others. Most social media accounts are free for a business to use, but there are a few platforms which may require a small fee to register, such as Flixster or Yubileaker. There are also a number of social media platforms which use third party applications to facilitate the sharing of content. Many business use social media accounts to publish status updates, blog posts, videos, or other documents that they have created.

Creating a profile page for your business on any of the social media sites is extremely easy to do, but it is important to make your business stand out with a clear message and a professional photo. You should also provide information about your company and what you can do for it. If you have created a profile and are using it to promote your business, you will want to start following followers who have a similar interest as you do. This will allow you to reach out to those people who follow your interests and provide useful information about your company. However, if you are simply using the social media sites as a personal level of advertisement for your business you may not need to use the profile pages to connect with followers. In these cases you can simply post information about your business on individual walls and update your Facebook and Twitter pages accordingly.