You can't take full advantage of social media without a creative and compelling message, delivered in a format that prospects can easily consume on their terms -- a way to immerse themselves in your wares -- in the context of your online business, of course.

ONLINE CONTENT IS MIDPOINT MEDIA
Think of this content as fresh 3-5 minute videos that tell your story, which becomes the half-way point between traditional & social marketing and your storefront. If you've ever bought TV time, you know how constricting 15 or 30 seconds can be. Online videos are still a novelty to many people and they'll watch out of pure curiosity. That's good. But buyers expect some meat. So make sure you answer their questions.

Demonstrate or showcase a specific product or service -- or just allow prospects to meet you in a relaxed, non-threatening virtual setting.

DOES YOUR BRAND HAVE A PRESENCE IN YOUR COMMUNITY?
Social Media Marketing is a bigger concept than joining Facebook or Myspace.  It's grassroots sales in the most traditional sense.  It's brands being part of social conversations.  It's like a small business owner or sales rep joining a community softball team or bowling league, where you're part of social interaction, and therefore your brand becomes better known, trusted, respected within that social group.  Your brand eventually becomes more buyable.  It gets you clout, cred & respect.  In this arena, you can create and improve social perception of your brand.

Are all social interactions happening online?  No, of course not.  But that's where a lot of them start.  And ultimately, we hope, the aim of social media is to eventually gather in the physical world.  So social media marketing can also work if the aim of your brand is to get people to physically enter your brick-and-mortar store.

IS IT FREE?
The idea that social media can be part of your marketing on a shoestring plan is certainly a viable one; you can thoroughly immerse your brand in social media without any hard costs, but it takes up a lot of your valuable time.  You can also hire people to do the work for you.  You can even have professional profile designers give your Myspace presence a makeover, with your brand's colors, fonts and logo.  And there are widgets for your web site and stand-alone apps for your desktop.  But be warned: if maintaining a professional image is important to you, it's a good idea to extend these core values onto your social media presence as well.  In other words, tasking your 14-year-old nephew to build your Myspace profile is like trusting him to design your store's facade; it isn't going to look very professional, is it?

ETIQUETTE
Many analysts recommend engaging in non-sales activity within the scope and context of social media web sites and applications.  You want to moderate your behavior as you would if you were in a small town bowling league.  In other words, it would be OK to identify your brand and occasionally invite people offsite, to your physical or virtual business presence, but a large segment would be offended, in fact repulsed by your very presence, if you were frequently and actively engaging in sales activities in these online forums.  There's a time and place for sales; take it offsite.

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