Social media is becoming a booming business in all sectors of marketing. Social networking sites have gained a lot of credibility in recent years like companies like Canon, Lowes or Walmart. With actors like Ashton Kutcher, singers like Taylor Swift, and athletes like Lebron James on Twitter. Beomouth news stations like ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or TBN launch Facebook sites. Television personalities like Ellen DeGeneres from The Ellen Show, Jay Leno from “New” Tonight Show or Oprah Winfrey from The Oprah Winfrey Show have joined the social media craze. Everyone is finally understanding the importance of participating in this great medium! Everyone is using this medium as an important part of their PR marketing and it’s working for all of them. Everyone is using social networking sites to build bigger audiences, increase traffic to their websites, and gain even more popularity than ever before, if that’s even possible for industry and entertainment giants.

As you can see every day, it is now critical to build your audience with these sites. I personally want to share a few tips to help you understand how to add yourself to this mix, do it the right way, and build a level of credibility about who you are and what your “brand” is. Becoming “You, Inc.” will be the single most important factor in your future success and growth. People are inundated with advertising everywhere they look, it’s a part of life, so to be successful on social media websites, avoid advertising. You want to focus your efforts on helping other people get to know YOU and your goal is to create in them the desire to want to interact with you. You can do this by following some specific guidelines when using social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or YouTube.

Always target a specific audience of people who may be interested in who you are and what you do for a living. If you’re a medical professional, you probably won’t try to connect with people who like rock, hip-hop, or country music and all they want to talk about is music. Use the keyword features and be specific in your searches for potential friends and followers. A useful tool like WebCEO.com will direct you to useful or specific forums where you can invite people to follow you on Twitter in your signature file. Take the time to slowly connect with them and bring them into your circle or group of interesting people you are associating with.

Let people know that you are a leader, an inspiration, a mentor or a teacher. Even if you’re not actually an educator, you have specialized skills that may be valuable to others. By offering value to your followers and friends by sharing your education, knowledge, and opinions on certain issues, people will gravitate to your sites and want to follow you and become loyal to you and keep seeing what you’re all about. Be real. Be authentic. Be yourself. I can’t be clearer on this. Don’t be someone your note. People like honesty first and foremost and this will be a great asset to you as you build a network of followers. Don’t be something you’re not. Smile at people. Have fun in your videos. Enjoy the process and the process will become more and more enjoyable and it won’t seem like so much work.

When I write something on my blog, I always include a lot of links in it. Always try to provide as many links to Hubpages, newsletters, your Twitter page, articles and videos that you create or are using to promote yourself first, your business second. People will gravitate to you first, then seek more information about what motivates you later… Your business. By linking to everything, you’ll be able to build a massive web of pathways to you as people search for more information about you over time.

Make sure you have a multitude of ways for people to contact you online. I usually offer many ways to contact me. My blog has forms, phone numbers, email addresses, my twitter account, my Facebook account, etc. to communicate with me. Put back links on your social networking sites. If they have a good reason to connect with you, they will. Make a good first impression! Participate in group forums and online discussions on specific topics of interest that you can share with others with similar interests. Create events that interest others and invite people to attend them with you. Create newsletters, email blasts, or articles like this one. This will result in the eventual growth and viral effect of the intellectual information you are producing, allowing others to share your information via Walls, on Facebook, or by using the retweet feature on Twitter as an example.

Did I say have fun? Well let me say it again, have fun with this. Nobody wants to do anything that is heavy or painful, so you should have fun while using these sites, meet new people and make new friends and followers. If you don’t have fun using these sites, just don’t. Without developing a passion for it, you won’t be able to build a massive network of friends and followers who eventually become customers and business partners. If you look at people like Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki or Joel Olsteen on Twitter or Facebook, you will experience their passion. They are social media rock stars. You can feel everything they feel from their posts.

Part of the fun process is engaging people in conversations and sharing experiences, knowledge, opinions, information and ideas. This is what others respect most when they are online. Deliver what you offer to others and they will soon become your fans. To become a social media rock star, you have to offer more than most people do, which is why people want to follow you to the ends of the earth. Social media is all about connecting with the right niche, sharing the right message with your respective audience, and making sure that you can help provide them with solutions and help them resolve any problems or concerns that they might have in their lives. Social media is about PEOPLE. Help them get what they are looking for and you too will be rewarded with what you are looking for!

And don’t forget… HAVE FUN!