1. Symbiosis – Connecting and sharing with your target market is beneficial to both parties. The consumer is able to connect with you and feel valuable, while you gain the knowledge first-hand of what the consumer’s wants and needs are. This builds loyalty and rapport that helps found lasting relationships.

2. Information - Statistics and data gained from social networking are priceless. You are able to see your own prevalence in the market and adapt your business to grow stronger.

3. Expansion – Social networking is a whole new frontier that offers endless possibilities in how far your company’s reach can go. With so many avenues of communication, the extent of your success can be limitless.

1. Be genuine in responses – When commenting on blogs or replying to tweets, it is important to be genuine in your response. Respond directly to the information of the blog or tweet and don’t go on a tangent regarding your own business. The point of responses is to build rapport and SEO, not directly advertise.

2. Be honest in tags – When you are leaving tags for your blogs and page headers, be sure to be honest about what tags apply to the subject. Tricking consumers to your website will build negative traffic called a bounce rate, which is the rate of consumers who visit your site and immediately leave. Not only this, but some search engines will immediately drop your search rank if they notice you are adding nonrelated tags.

3. Personalize when possible – Whenever commenting, updating, or replying it is important to personalize whenever possible. Connecting on a personal level not only helps posts look genuine, but it also encourages feedback and traffic.

One of the most common problems I run in to while networking is spam, repeatedly posted bits of advertisement that invade social networking sites everywhere. They do no good for the business or the consumer. So why avoid spam?

1. Because everyone else does – A very small percentage of the community purposefully respond to spam. That small percentage is quickly dwindling into nothing as most everyone has adapted to the online environment and they understand the difference between junk and genuine. Connecting, posting, and responding in valid, meaningful ways is much more effective than spamming.

2. Because you don’t want to get blocked – Most websites have evolved to avoid spam at all costs. They have systems, both automatic and manual, that prevent spam from being posted. Most websites, some more strict than others, will permanently block you once you have violated the spam restrictions enough times. Even some sites that are huge SEO goldmines can block you if you spam tags on pages and blogs that you post.

With the World Cup just around the corner, it is now being predicted that it will break records in the social media realm. Previous landmarks, such as the Super Bowl and the U.S. Election, will be easily overshadowed by the international sports juggernaut of the World Cup.

Twitter and Facebook will likely be overloaded with updates and posts referring to the World Cup. An international event that America has generally neglected, the World Cup is perhaps the most unified event in the world outside of the Olympics, and the social media statistics are expected to prove that.

1. Regulate prevalence – Based on the statistics of followers, messages, and replies, you are able to determine your effectiveness in Twitter and beyond. The data allows you to understand your current position in the market and how to adapt your methods to better increase your traffic.

2. Direct communication – Twitter offers the rare opportunity to directly communicate with your target market, influential consumers, and current customers. Patiently working on communication through this medium will help you build a solid rapport with your customer.

3. Updates – Twitter allows you to share your business’ updates, current offers, and friendly advice. By consistently communicating to your market, you are more likely to retrieve attention and traffic.