Just because your company may have incorporated Social Media into it’s marketing strategy – it may have even gone as far as creating a Social Media team – doesn’t mean your management has adapted to Social Media trends or adopted its philosophies in the marketplace.

A few weeks ago, I walk into a meeting expecting to put a bid in on a web development job.  Little did I know that I was actually walking into an interview.

I was meeting with Cliff Oxford of Entrepreneur Advisors who offered me a job on the spot as their VP of Internet Technologies.  I accepted.

Since then, my time has been consumed with laying a foundation for their web presence.  This has left little time to blog.

Now, I've constructed this site to feed the niche market of business professionals and their businesses with information on Social Media and best-practices.

And, now, have a month or so, I'm able to contribute once again to the blog.

Stay tuned.  Much more to come.

As a disclaimer, while I, myself, engage heavily in social media marketing, I must confess that there are social marketers out there who are better than I - all they do is social marketing.  My expertise is search engine optimization in which I've had tremendous success for my clients.  I'm constantly attempting to show my clients the benefits of social media marketing and how it can improve search engine optimization for elevating organic page ranking.  The following is an attempt to show a few points why social marketing is beneficial for SEO.

7. Peer Grading
Through utilizing social bookmarking platforms such as Digg, Mixx, De.licio.us or Reddit by posting your web site's content, you give others the opportunity to grade the quality of your site.  Low approval status may be a good indication that you should tweak your web site's layout or copy.

6. Peer Contribution
Peer contribution is truly one of the biggest benefits of social media by allowing visitors to connect with you and add their own "2 cents" to your content through mediums such as blogs and forums. Blogs and forums facilitate exponential growth to your content with each contribution, thus increasing your site's potential relevance. (I say "potential" because not every contribution is quality.)

5. References
The better the quality of your web site's content, the more people will reference your site on other sites.  Visitors will also reference your site's URL through mediums like Facebook and Twitter. All of this will create backlinks to your web site.  Many of these backlinks have greater page ranking and when they link to your site, your site's organics naturally increase.

4. Traffic Sources
Perhaps similar to references of reason 5, but utilizing the same social bookmarking platforms mentioned in reason 8.  Both of these not only provide quality backlinks, but increase opportunities for incoming traffic.  Also, most corporate web sites will be indexed by search engines once a month.  However, many social bookmarking sites are indexed every 30 minutes.  Its a great way to get your new content out there fast.  Futhermore, if you utilize tools like Google Analytics that track visitor metrics, the more unique visits you receive (along with a few other factors) the more your page will seem relevant to search engines.  And all search engines try to deliver the most relvant results (look at reason 2 for more information).

3. Brand Visibility
Increase your brand's popularity and familiarity by increasing its visibility.  Using social media can rapidly grow your brand's reach.

2. Page Relevance
I always tell an SEO client to "think on the other side of the table."  In other words, think about what your potential visitor would be searching for.  This might not always be the "terms of the trade." As you engage in social media, you'll see what jargon visitors and clients are using to describe your products and services.  In many cases you're not going to want to use your terminology, because the only time you may appear at the top of organics is when your competitors are searching for those same terms. The terms that visitors and clients are using might be good keywords for you to use to target them and other clients in your search engine optimization.

1. Relate-ability
Implementing all of the previous reasons create one thing - an inviting environment that: 1) helps you relate better with your clients; and 2) helps your clients relate better with each other.  One reason why users love social media is the fact that, well, it's social.  People like being able to connect and relate through the brands they're using.  Research shows that brands no longer makes the person, but, rather, the person makes the brand.  In other words, your clients define who you are.

Statistics show that over the past few years "blogging" (web logging) has increased exponentially in popularity. People today will blog about almost anything you can think of (and a lot that you can't think of).

While some choose to blog for personal expression, others choose to blog for reasons pertaining to business. Perhaps, it's to keep clients informed of corporate offerings. Or, maybe, it's because you've heard that a blog can increase your influence with your readers and elevate your web site's performance in search rankings.