Twitter. A small business resource to connect, build relationships and promote your business.

Facebook has become a huge part of social media these days. This tool that was designed back in 2004 for college students has grown to 300 million users. Mark Zuckerman who at the time of inception was a college student who wanted a way for college students to be able to communicate with each other.

As such, YouTube has a blog post today admitting that maybe its 5-star rating system not only isn’t the best way to vote on videos, but is essentially useless.

Everyone’s talking about it, everyone says you need it, so you get it. You’re all set up with Facebook and Twitter, great! … Now what?

You start posting. But forget your well versed product pitch, the purpose of getting into social media is to interact with your consumers.

The October 23 deadline for the Viral Film Festival, held by Vanksen, fast approaches! Get your cool viral work in and see it projected over a panoply of drunk people in Paris on November 26. No cost to enter; this is all for the love of the crowd. (And some goodwill for Vanksen, natch.)

Sylvester Chisom, front, and Arthur Shivers pay a consultant to market their auto-detailing business on Facebook and Twitter.
He thinks the service, which costs $450 a month, is worth it. "It's just better having somebody else dedicated to thinking of stuff to put up," says Mr. Chisom, co-owner of Showroom Shine Express Detailing LLC in St. Louis.

Facebook Fan Page are another way to provide awareness,engage and build relationships. These tips provide ideas to attract new fans.

Social media marketing and the businesses that utilize it have become more sophisticated. More small businesses are beginning to understand how to best leverage online tools to build a community and recognize that engagement and interaction are the foundations of social marketing, but most don’t know what’s next.

Recently, Advertising Age reported on the 400% surge in mobile video uploads to YouTube, attributed to the new iPhone 3GS. Beyond the implications of what that may mean for the value of ad inventory on YouTube, one thing is clear: There is an inseparable link between social media and mobile devices.

Every hour thousands of new videos are uploaded online. Blog posts are written and published. Millions of tweets and other short messages are shared. To say there is a flood of content being created online now seems like a serious understatement...