Using Social Media tools for marketing is a greate way to build your online community. Social media marketing is about spending time getting to know others and giving them an opportunity to get to know you. It’s important to respect your audience by providing quality content that your followers, friends, collegues or readers will enjoy experiencing. Social media is not just about Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. There are so many ways to get into the social media world. Below are 10 ways that you can get involved in social media and begin building your online community.

• Blogs
• Article Writing
• Microblogging
• Videos
• Podcasting
• Direct outreach/events
• Social Networks
• Professional Networks
• Discussion Boards and Forums
• Social Bookmarking

One of the most important things you can do is link all of these together! Don’t let them work all on their own, link your social networks to your blog and microblog, link your videos to your articles and microblog, let people know where you are and where your content is. The more consistency and the more frequent you do all of this your message will reach your community and the ball will start to roll.

I always harp on it, but you must be consistent and you must provide quality. Attract people to you by what you provide, and make sure you communicate with your audience, that’s where the relationships are built.