There’s no need for snail mail and/or waiting for the next day to update your friends – that is the beauty of social networking. It can be compared to the backyard fence where the housewives used to meet up to chat and talk about the new products they’re using. Those product recommendations simply grew by one person passing it on to another. Products that are recommended by a friend are deemed good and can be trusted. This passing on of information, or word of mouth, has been recognized since the world began but companies didn’t recognize earlier on the potential of expanding their network through social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.

Try spending time tinkering with those sites and you will see that it is a world (or community) that’s full of opinions. What they think of this product they just bought, or a restaurant they just tried. That one has sent a note to his 496 friends to say that the latest super-hero movie is fabulous! In fact, the vast majority of postings are simple statements of viewpoint. ‘I just ate at XYZ restaurant – excellent food, but over-priced.” “Just came out of MoMA – time well spent!” The friends who read these postings will be more likely to go to the Museum of Modern Art, but less likely to bother with XYZ restaurant.

Like all word of mouth marketing, the simple fact is these are unsolicited opinions, freely given. You mustn’t underestimate the power of these personal recommendations. The very spontaneous of the opinion adds weight – it does not feel like ‘somebody is trying to sell something’. How are businesses to take advantage of the social networking phenomenon? How can you be sure that the products they are talking about are yours? These sites are rightly vigilant against spamming (unauthorized and unwelcome solicitation) so a careful social marketing strategy is called for.

With proper application of just a few proven methods you can see your web traffic explode through social marketing. Follow the right techniques for establishing profiles and getting your message out there and you will reap the rewards of increased traffic to your website. You will want to be careful to avoid marketing mistakes that will lead to getting banned from the social networking sites, and there is no better guidance than that available at Social Traffic Explosion. Here you will learn techniques and methods you can use that will allow you to take advantage of the social marketing phenomenon.

Nathan Holland is the owner of AttractableMarketing.com.
For Free Videos on increasing your website traffic through Social Networking, visit http://attractablemarketing.org