Blogging

Here is a link that has 25 tips for marketing your blog:

http://www.toprankblog.com/2006/06/25-tips-for-marketing-your-blog/

If you want people to read your blogs and to spread your name around the internet you can follow the tips from the website.  A very basic overview of the tips listed is basically staying active on your blog.  Things such as answering comments, adding content to your page so that it doesn't look 'boring,' knowing your audience and posting blogs based off of the audience's interest, knowing how often to post, and keeping content updated. 

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an example of a professional social media site.  Creating an account for LinkedIn allows easier access to employers searching for people to hire.  Recruiters can view your resume, your professional network connections, employment history, and even skills you post.  It's basically and online resume for employers to look at as well as you to look for employers.  You can search for companies you would like to work for, only jobs if you just want to have a specific job, and even recruit people if you are a recruiter.  LinkedIn offers a social media network of professionals to post content that will be relevant to anyone and everyone that uses it.  This isn't like a Facebook or Twitter where people post their random thoughts or their plans for the weekend.  This is for people who are serious about looking for jobs, staying connected with professionals, helping their company hire people, and posting relevant information.  This is a very useful tool for young adults graduating from college.

Social Media Marketing - Facebook

Facebook has some different features than twitter that will allow you to market your company in some different ways than twitter.  The man thing is Facebook has ads that you can create to get your name out there.  You can create an ad with a description of who can see it and then send it to Facebook.  Let's say you just opened up a screen printing/sports equipment shop.  You can create an ad talking about making jerseys for the local high schools, making jerseys for local recreational teams, or mentioning the equipment you have.  Once your description is complete you should make sure you included some where in your description the people you want to see the ad because you want the people around your area to see it and not someone in another state.  Facebook will detect anyone that likes sports or has mentioned basketball, baseball, etc. in their activities or interests section.  Facebook will have ads appear on their profiles once they log in.  The nice thing about this feature is that it is free to create an ad since you are helping Facebook and Facebook gets paid to deliver the ads to the people you want to see it. 

Social Media Marketing - Twitter

Twitter can be turned into a very useful marketing tool for a business to use.  Get your marketing department to set up an account then you can request to follow your competition and customers to help get you started.  Social media has become the new way people interact with each other, find out information, and it is now being used in marketing strategies.  Now more businesses are turning to social media to boost their sales and give them the edge over their competition.  The way they do this is by tweeting useful or interesting content such as demo videos or useful tips.  If the company is a very successful place then they can post stats or rankings.  You must be careful if other businesses try to disprove something you have posted or even try to start smack talk.  The proper way to address those issues would be to show facts that proves their statement wrong and don't even start any smack talk back.  If you look at a business that doesn't get into anything with another business that is trying to start something, and see them achieve something that blows their competition out of the water, you will view that business as more professional and classy.  These are just a few tips to help you get started.

Manage your online brand!

Why should you manage you brand online?

If your coming out of college you should start creating an image for yourself that is presentable for potential employers.  Employers looking to hire college students have recently been asking for facebook passwords at their interviews to find out what kind of person they would potentially be hiring.  You better hope you don't have any pictures on there that they would hate to see.  With a positive brand or image you won't have to worry about a thing.  A couple ways to get started would be to remove all the pictures you wouldn't want the employers to see or even create some new accounts.  Then you have to start being more selective of what you post and start posting more informational content or even just tips on how to fix something.  This type of image can show the potential employers that you can be a valuable marketing asset through social media.  More and more companies are trying to hire people that can communicate effectively to large quantities and keep up with the innovation of technology.

Managing you brand is also important.  You can't just try posting these new informational posts a few times and say you brand has changed, you must keep doing it.  Employers will be looking for consistency over a long period of time and even if you aren't looking for a job.  Maintaining your brand will help draw interested viewers and word of mouth will spread to their friends and before you know it you will have more people following you on twitter, becoming friends with you on facebook, reading you blogs, or even potential employers viewing your LinkedIn profile.