Social media marketing is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to spread the good word about your business. Webopedia’s got a vast resource of tips to get you started and keep you going.

ComScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services, noted that for the first time Facebook entered into the top 10 Web property rankings for January 2009. According to ComScore and industry followers, this is a sure sign that that this year we will likely see continued growth in usage of social media platforms.

Social media is the new (buzzword) that is used to describe a variety of Web-based platforms, applications and technologies that enable people to socially interact with one another via the Web or Web 2.0 as these services are normally labeled.

Some examples of social media sites and applications include Facebook, YouTube, Del.icio.us, Twitter, Digg, blogs and other sites that have content largely contributed based on user participation — that is, sites that organize and deliver user-generated content (UGC).

Many businesses have primarily focused on getting listed in Google for no reason other than to drive Google's search traffic to their own Web space. Social media is no different — businesses are looking to leverage social media traffic to help their own sites and brands. In November traffic to Blogger, according to comScore, was 222 million. It is easy to see why businesses want to attract some of that traffic.

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