As we had mentioned before, more people spend time on social networks then looking at porn. Be it Reddit, Digg,Twitter, StumbleUpon, Linkedin, MySpace, FriendFeed or Facebook, there is a vast audience available which may seem too delicious to ignore. But in many cases you should! I know that seems like weird advice, especially when we are reading a blog about marketing, but it’s true. You should ignore that you are targeting anyone, at least overtly. Time and time again, the accepted knowledge is social networks are off limits for marketers that make their presence obvious. The other issue, is not doing enough research of the community. Sure there is tons of traffic at Digg.com and its great to get their traffic, but if what you sell or promote is no interest to the user base, don’t bother. Furthermore, traffic from a Digg or a StumbleUpon is fleeting. Why does it matter to get a thousand visitors, if there is no reason for them to stay or even buy your product? The first rule for any Marketing campaign within a social network should be: Does it even make sense to promote your product or service via a social network? Let this be your guiding thought and a warning: When a company goes about social marketing wrong, they could waste precious human and monetary resources and even end up embarrassing their brand. To help companies get it right, here are some other tips we can give you if you decide to enter the world of social network marketing:

Mark8t Social Network Marketing Cheat Sheet:
1- Have a product or service that make sense to market in the community. It’s important to note this type of marketing can be time consuming, so make doubly sure about what you wish to promote and the audience is right. Some questions to ask yourself might be is who is your current target audience? Are my potential customers involved in social networks? And if so, which ones? In the end what you choose to promote needs to excite people, if the product/service won’t do that then marketing via Social Networks won’t help. Consumers are not stupid.
2-Make sure you have well defined goals, objectives and a plan. Make sure you test and measure against these goals. Don’t be afraid to tweak or change. See how Skittles.com. Things don’t always go as you may think.
3- Be a real person and be engaged in the social network. Each social network has a “raison d’etre“. Being a participant first and a marketer second. Participate actively and take an interest in their community and introduce new and fresh content on a regular basis. If you are larger company, consider a dedicated community manager.
4- Remember in social networks in needs to be a bottoms up approach, not top down.
5- Solicit members feedback or welcome the community to participate. Take a look at the recent Simpsons Contest. If you can, reward users for their contributions.

This is not an exhaustive list. Regardless, the golden rule is research to avoid wasting your time. One other soultion we should mention  is creating a social network of you own via such software as Elgg. Whatever you choose, you can contact Mark8t E-Marketing Solutions to help implement your strategy.