If you think that social media marketing is a buzzword and nothing more, think again... Because, it's much more than that.

Few are alien to Facebook, Twitter, Digg, GOOG, Flickr and other social sites, and if you are, then you need to get out more. The phenomenal growth and popularity of social networking sites have become a huge rage online, and the private sector and companies alike are implementing various social media marketing tools to get their share of attention.

Planning is one of the most essential strategies that can make you taste success or failure while implementing social media marketing. Just like all businesses need a methodical and systematic approach, the same goes for social media marketing.

It's a fact that social media marketing has transformed the way people do business online. It helps to understand that connection is the key word. All you need to do is 'connect' with the right clients and customers, which is a fairly easy task. This makes the scenario transparent as you can gauge your success, and keep abreast of what your peers and competitors are doing as well.

With social media marketing, it's possible to reach out to your target audience in an innovative and original way. In fact, social sites are the perfect platform that allows you to:

 Make friends and reconnect with old friends

 Create a niche for your products and services, and attract warm prospects to your site

 Market and brand your products and service in an explicit manner either by blogs, social communities and so on

 Generate interest and even attract new potential customers and clients by exposing them to your products and services online

 Interact and engage your prospects in a one-on-one environment.

You'd be surprised to learn that there are hundreds of social media marketing sites online where you can communicate with prospective clients and customers. You can build credibility and trust, and increase the value of your reputation by establishing interesting social media marketing contacts, and utilizing these modern marketing methods.

Did you know that this year around 82% of companies are planning to implement social media marketing skills in their marketing strategy? Well you'd have to agree that the Internet is bigger and better than newspapers and magazines, with far more readers from around the world.

Facebook Advertising Basics

You can advertise on Facebook in style, and in an innovative manner.

Here are three good reasons to use Facebook:

• Reach over 400,000,000 active Facebook users.

• Attach social actions to your ads to increase relevance.

• Create demand for your product with relevant ads.

Facebook ads are appealing, and you can:

• Quickly create image and text-based ads.

• Advertise your own web page or something on Facebook like a Page or an Event.

• Choose to pay per click (CPC) or impression (CPM) in your local currency.

Here is an explanation of how CPC versus. CPM works. For any available ad inventory, Facebook selects the best ad to run based on the cost per click or impression and ad performance.

If you choose a Pay for Clicks (CPC) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for each click on your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space. The amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

If you choose a Pay for Views (CPM) model, you will also bid on how much you are willing to pay for every thousand impressions of your ad. Facebook will display your ad in the Ad Space, and the amount you are charged will never exceed your daily budget.

One of the advantages of the Facebook advertising system is that you have the ability to optimize your ads.

You can effectively:

• Track your progress with real-time reporting.

• Gain insight about who's clicking on your ad.

• Make modifications to maximize your results.

Targeting options available for ad placement includes country location, and demographics such as age, sex, relationships, and languages. You can also choose the likes and interests, and education and work categories to suit your ideal prospective audience. While you're setting up an ad and choosing the targeting options, you will see the estimated reach number change to show the size of the prospect base that will see your ad.

On the Facebook Ads Page you can find case studies and reference guides, join discussions with other advertisers, and stay on top of the latest Facebook Ads news.

To create an ad, you can follow the link below or go to your home page, and click the link on the right hand side near where the ads display that prompts you to create a Facebook Ad.

For help writing your ads, try visiting the Suggested Best Practices page, and the Advertising Guidelines. You may also want to review the Common Ad Mistakes page for free tips. If you have any questions about creating Facebook ads, click on the facebook link below for more answers.

You can also create a product page, which helps to brand yourself and your product or service in an engaging way. It's relatively easy to create a product page, and there are tutorials available on the subject. This will give you the ultimate exposure, and people worldwide will know about your product/service.