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Social Media Marketing is BS, a fad, right?  WRONG!  As a matter of fact you couldn’t be more wrong.  Social media, the likes of Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Google Buzz, and the rest are how the world now communicates.

At this time there are over 400 million people on Facebook logged on for an average of 21 minutes per visit.  Twitter and the rest continue to gain popularity, so how do you get your companies information in front of them?

Many small businesses will do it themselves in an attempt to save money.  While I am all about saving money, I am not in favor of it at the cost of my own business.

Let me explain what I mean:  You might set up a Facebook fan page or Twitter account and start tweeting right away, but if you don’t have followers you have just wasted a tens sometimes hundreds of hours of time, and time means money.  You also have to know how to work each site off of the other; I like to say its 50% art and 50% science.  Ask yourself can you get 1000 followers in 48 hours on Twitter, are those followers people or companies who will buy my product.  This is where a Social Media Marketer comes in.

Choosing the right Social Media Marketer can be daunting if you don’t know what you’re looking for, so here are the basics.  There are thousands and I mean thousands of Social Media Marketers, try to start locally see if any of your friends in other businesses have had success.

If you can’t find anyone recommended locally, search for Social Media Marketers on the social sites like Facebook and Twitter.  When you find one see how visible they are on the social networks (by the way don’t be surprised if most of their followers are other Social Media Marketers) so look for someone who can point to other individuals out of that business who follow them.

Next make sure they are not just pushing one media outlet, beware “all you need is a Facebook Fan Page”.  For social media to truly take affect you must be in all outlets available and working them daily.

What to pay?  The charges will vary based on experience and how good someone is, but you should look for a set up fee, this gets you or your company registered on all the sites, and should include getting a certain number of followers or fans per site.  Understand that to properly get set up on all the necessary sites, link them together, and get followers can take several hours sometimes over 100.

Once this is done you will have the choice to either pay a monthly retainer fee to have the Social Media Marketer continue to increase you followers and make sure you stay on the latest sites, or if you really like the Social Media Marketing you can continue on your own.

The best part of Social Media Marketing is that it is the best way to get cost per leads down for your company.  Imagine getting as many calls from Internet Marketing as you get off of Television or Radio, but for a fraction of the cost.  Not only can it be done, it’s already been done, and will continue to drive marketing towards the net.

Think about it. You see TV stations advertising that they are on Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and the rest, but you don’t see any of those three advertising on TV.  Just something to ponder!