If you think Twitter, Facebook, and other online social media communities are only for teens, you’re missing out on valuable and free marketing platforms for your brand (book, business or product).

Further, if you’re not on social media, you’re risking losing your potential clients/customers to those smart business people who are utilizing social media.

Which social media platforms you focus on depends a great deal on what your brand is. Here are seven excellent reasons why you must use social media no matter what you are promoting:

Reason 1: It’s the Most Cost-Effective Online Advertising

Successful sports teams have engrained in their heads the fundamentals of their sports. Business leaders and coaches alike who dwell on the fundamentals usually have the most successful outcomes. Failure is almost always rooted in a deviation from the fundamentals. So if your website is not delivering clients, perhaps you’re missing the fundamentals.

Part of the answer is no one actually taught you the fundamentals of website success. Most businesses understand the need for a website, few understand the fundamentals. Getting your website to deliver clients is an exercise in fundamentals. First and foremost is a back to basics, grass roots understandng of your market, website style.

This week saw Earls Court host the AdTech Show 2009, which WNW Design attended to bring back news of the market trends and what’s happening in the industry.

Whilst attendance and exhibitor activity showed no signs of recession, a closer look gave tell-tell signs of the current situation. New and ground breaking products were thin on the ground. Working smarter and maximising return on investment were very much the recurring themes of the show.

Drilling down into user data and understanding your customers and their needs better was the key focus. Developing ways to use your email marketing to reach your target market specifically, rather than using the traditional “scattergun approach” was much in evidence.

Google has launched a controversial new tool that allows the public to comment on any web site in a side bar displayed in their browser.

Called Google Sidewiki, the tool is integrated in the latest version of Google Toolbar and works with both Firefox and Internet Explorer but ironically, not yet Google Chrome. To use Sidewiki, download the latest version of the Google Toolbar and set it to enhanced.

When activated, Sidewiki slides across from the left and becomes a browser sidebar, where you can write entries in a vertical column and read the entries of others. To activate Sidewiki, you simply click on the Sidewiki button in your Toolbar menu or the little talk bubble on the left hand side of your screen.

“My mechanic told me, ‘He couldn’t repair my brakes, so he made my horn louder.’” - Comedian, Steven Wright

We all want our websites to be more effective, and if you’re like most business people you are constantly searching the Web for anything that will help. What you find is a cabal of experts armed with statistics, analysis, charts and graphs all pointing to how they can get you high-up on the search engines and drive more traffíc to your site. The problem is that like Steven Wright’s mechanic these guys are adjusting your horn when it’s your brakes that need fixing.

According to Mashable.com, a leading authority on social media, there are currently over 12 million users on Twitter. Another resource called istrategylabs.com reports that 46% of Twitter users are college grads, and another 17% have post graduate degrees. Furthermore, 47% are between age 18 and 34, and another 31% are between 35 and 49. Males and females are evenly ranked, with women accounting for 53% of users and men 47%. If your target market falls within these demographics, actively participating on Twitter is probably worth your while.

Every one - from politicians, businesses, musicians, celebrities and many other groups of people - uses social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or other social networking outlets to spread their message, build their businesses and connect with others.

Do they know something we don’t?

Networking, whether online or offline, is a great use of time when done properly. As with anywhere you spend your time, knowing why you are doing it, how you will measure success and having a plan is the best approach.

We all need backlinks to our websites.

A backlink is an inbound html code that points to your website. You are probably wondering why you would want a backlink.

I will explain it this way: If you have many websites with one-way links to your website, the search engines interpret this in your favor. You want to make sure that your website is at the “hub of the wheel” so to speak — all the spokes, or links, are pointing to your website.

In June this year, Yahoo’s CEO Carol Bartz said the company sold its search business to Microsoft because, according to a New York Times report, “Yahoo could no longer continue to match the level of investment Google and Microsoft were making in searching”, and instead has plans to invest in the company’s display ad, content and mobile services technologies.

However, it is now praying for deliverance from the Justice Department that antitrust regulators approve the deal. There are also reports that the company’s executives are offloading their shares at a time when confidence in the company needs to be bolstered. But the big question is, what would happen to Yahoo if the deal were to be scotched?

As the online market place continues to warm up to the idea of SEO, link building has become center stage as it tends to be the most time consuming and crucial part of any internet marketing strategy. Link building services are the most commonly outsourced aspect of SEO. This process involves finding qualified and thematically relevant one-way linking partners who will link back to your website.