This article was written for Web Start Content.

“If you pay attention to social media trends at all, you’ve likely heard of Twitter.com. The LA Times uses it to send updates about wildfires; the NY Times uses it to track Washington politics; celebrities use it to tell their fans about their latest projects. But if you don’t have a Twitter account, you are likely wondering what all the fuss is about. Specifically, are there any benefits to using Twitter for your business?”

Read the rest of this article from Web Star Content.

This article was written by Paul Slater.

“I was speaking with a business owner recently about a number of topics and we got round to marketing and then on to Twitter. While many businesses large and small have decided to take the plunge, to varying degrees of success it has to be said, this business had made a conscious decision not to go down the Twitter route at this time. The reason was simple. They figured that the type of clients they were after, larger companies and public sector, wouldn’t use Twitter so why waste scarce effort that could be better utilised on other activities.”

Read the rest of this article from Business Blogs.

This article was written by Karan Goel.

“More and more companies are using Twitter for business – to research market, do brand advocacy and reputation management and provide selected highlights from a conference or event. Twitter can extend their brand in order to generate new opportunities. But to make innovative use of Twitter in a business environment here are 5 tips.”

Read the rest of this article from Gizmoko.

This article was written by Charnita Fance.

“A few days ago a friend of mine sent me a tweet asking if I knew a way that he could find out tweet frequency and history. He had apparently been hit by the “inflated tweet count” issue that has been going around for awhile now (as you can see by the 101 pages of comments on the Twitter blog regarding the issue). Though I didn’t know a site off hand, I know that I have come across quite a few in the past and figured that these would surely come in handy for others as well. If you know of any others, please feel free to add them in the comments section.”

Read the rest of this article from Blogging Tips.

This article was written by Susan Payton.

“With more than 300 million active users, Facebook is nearly the size of the United States in terms of population. In fact, odds are that you’re a Facebook user, perhaps using it to keep in touch with family and friends, with a dash of business thrown in for good measure. Maybe you look at some of the 2 billion photos uploaded each month, or contribute a few of the 40 million daily status updates. In short: Facebook is where it’s at, and you’re already there.

But what about your business? Does it use Facebook ()? If you’re a business owner, you really need to set up a Fan Page, or else you risk being left behind as more businesses shift to social networks like Facebook. This post is a beginner’s guide to setting up and getting the most out of a Page on Facebook for your business.”

Read the rest of this article from Mashable.

This article was written by My Business Marketing Mentor.

“If you want to use Twitter for business marketing you will need to develop a large following of people (called followers) in order to get the most out of using Twitter for business. Just like email marketing, you need to build a large list that you can communicate to.

Most small business owners don’t get how Twitter can be an effective marketing tool. This is great for a business owner like you that wants to take advantage of the Social media Tools Out there and get great exposure with out spending a fortune on advertising and marketing.”

Read the rest of this article from Gather.com

This article was written by Sean at SONARconnects.

“I’ve talked about the tools we use with our clients in the past, segmenting them as social networking tools (sharing conversations) or social media (sharing content). The reality is that on social networks you can share content and with the social media tools you can have conversations. The one that splits the difference is Twitter. Its the one that many business people don’t get.”

Read the rest of this article from Social Media Sonar.

This article was written by Brette Borow.

“There are over 56 million women using Facebook in the United States, and for marketers this means one very important thing – if you have a brand, product or company that targets women, FacebookFacebook is the place to be.”

Read the rest of this article from Mashable.

This article was written by Meryl Evans.

“The first rule of social media is that there are no rules. The second rule is what works for one person doesn’t always work for everyone else. Peeking into another person’s social media approach can give you ideas on how to adjust yours to get the biggest bang. So in this post, I’m going to share my social media process.”

Read the rest of this article from Web Worker Daily.

This article was written by Adam Ostrow.

You’ve most likely had an email newsletter for your company for much longer than you’ve had a presence on social media sites.  But now that you do both, the two can go hand-in-hand, with email creating an opportunity to extend your presence on social media sites, and social media sites providing a way to get more email subscribers.

At the moment though, most marketers aren’t connecting the dots.  According to a recent study published by eMarketer, 48% of marketers include “forward to a friend” features in their emails, but only 13% include features that make it easy to share content on social networks.  Here’s a look at how to close the gap, and why it’s so important that you do.”

Read the rest of this article from Open Forum.