During a recent review on online business services at econsultancy.com, it was revealed that blog reading and social network activities represent the fourth most popular activity online, even more interesting than e-mail. 10% of the time that we spend when interacting on the web is spent within social media sites. Search engine giant Bing recently published its top 10 world trends for the year and social media heavyweight newbie Twitter came in second place overall. If this doesn’t show you how important social media is in our collective lives, what will? Just as it is important for you to “be” on Facebook, you must maintain a proactive presence on Twitter as well.

Twitter has been widely referred to as a micro-blog and has really found its own niche. As you know, this medium allows you to send short status messages, and it has really caught on within the business world. It is possible to notify clients about special deals, to handle customer relationship matters and to exhibit a sense of visibility that was previously unheard-of.

You need to think quite creatively about your Twitter presence and understand that innovation will help. Those who are serious about this medium create a targeted background design rather than the generic offering, set up their profiles and links correctly and really consider how to build followers. There are a number of tools available to you, many based on straightforward keyword research, enabling you to accurately target people who have said they are interested in your niche. Once again, as with Facebook, management and maintenance of your Twitter account will take a concerted effort. You should allocate time, ideally again on a daily basis, to create meaningful messages, a.k.a. tweets, and interact with others through direct messages. If you think this is quite a lot of work, just realise that a majority of corporate members do not meaningfully interact through these mediums, and you can set yourself apart. By making a big effort to set it all up and then committing to management, you can really take advantage of this fabulous new medium.

The world of Internet marketing is obviously dynamic, but it has changed almost beyond recognition in the last few years. Since the effective arrival of “web 2.0” and the social media revolution, marketing online has become much more of a subtle and thoughtful approach. Great emphasis is now placed on establishing your operation and your name, so that you are viewed as expert and authoritative. When you interact through social media channels such as Facebook and Twitter, do be careful as you go about it - and rarely, if ever, approach prospects with a hard sell. In addition to your main sales hub, why not set up a blog to feed into it? By linking between your blog and your main sales hub, even if it means creating a subdomain within your website development to host the blog, you maintain separation while also taking into account potential sales.

Consider your core operation. You need to educate prospects about your product or service, whatever it may be. You may know how great your offerings are and may be convinced that they represent a great bargain for people out there in the real world. However, you need to convince others and this is where you must establish yourself and your organisation as experts. A blog is so important and must be well-designed, thought out and presented professionally. You can use a content management system or website development platform such as Wordpress, the leader in this field, as you establish your presence.

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Executive Virtual Assistant who assists businesses and individuals with achieving their professional goals. Want to find out more about online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!