I am going to touch on 5 social media practices: forums, social bookmarking, blogging, article submission and social networking sites. Not everyone will agree that all of these topics fall into social media, and that’s fine. The way I see it, all of these topics deal directly with people and therefore fall into the social media category. But enough of that and on to the subject at hand.

1. Forums
Forums are a great source of information. You will find a wide range of expertise on the subject matter of your choice, from beginners to gurus, and all levels of people use forums to share their opinions and knowledge.

Generally, there are a few things that you need to remember when using forums:

- You may only be using them to try and find information but they are a great way to get your brand out there and get some backlinks – that doesn’t mean you should spam them with replies or threads that don’t really contribute or are merely for advertising purposes. Start threads that will entice people to reply or click the link in your signature, when you reply, reply with something helpful. Ask your own questions. Using forums in this way builds a good reputation for you and your brand, earning traffic as well as links. If you spam the sites people won’t give your contributions a second glance and you may even get banned.

- You should read the rules for the forums that you join, that way there is less chance of you being banned for something you might not have known you were doing that is wrong.

- If you do have links to your websites in your signature, try not to list more than 3 otherwise it looks spammy. I’m more inclined to only list 1 as it is more “authentic” but most forums suggest no more than 3.

- The most important thing to remember is that it’s not just about getting the links, this is a good opportunity to find regular traffic and learn new things, make it count.

Some good forums are webmaster-talk.com, www.irishwebmasterforum.com and webproworld.com.

2. Social bookmarking
This is another good way to get links and if you use it, the right kind of traffic too. Social bookmarking is simply telling bookmarking sites that you like certain articles or stories, and sharing those articles with other members when you submit them. You can vote on stories that you like or don’t like and leave reviews.

Of course you can submit your own blog posts or article submissions, but if people see only submissions relating to your site, you could lose valuable traffic because you look like you are spamming the sites.

There is no “trick” to using this kind of social media – all you have to do is not “pretend” to look authentic…but actually be authentic. You will receive worthwhile traffic and build a good reputation this way. Submit interesting articles you read, or blog posts you find funny, include a profile picture…do anything a real user would do – because that is what you should be. There is no quick fix. You need to act like a human in order to receive human interaction with your site.

Some sites you can use are StumbleUpon, Digg and Sphinn.

3. Blogging
By owning a blog you get to share your thoughts, ideas and business with a huge audience. If your content is useful enough you will get links and loyal followers too.

The trick here is to not make the blog about you, make it about your audience. If you have specials running, sure, share it with them…but don’t make your entire blog about specials your company is running. That will encourage…nothing. No links, no loyal followers and no comments.

Make your content relevant and interesting to read. Comment on other blogs you find interesting too – people read those comments and you may get some extra traffic if you contribute something worthwhile, maybe even a link from the blogger whose post you are commenting on – if you get their attention. Interaction is key to making your blog successful.

Other ways of getting more traffic and links in this social media category is by guest posting on other blogs and sponsoring competitions (you will earn links from the bloggers running those competitions etc).

Some good blogs for SEO are mattcutts.com/blog, seobook.com, seo-scoop.com and www.interleado.com/blog.

4. Article submission
There are many online article submission sites you can use to showcase your articles. As with blogging, if they are interesting and helpful enough, they will earn you links and traffic.

Most of these social media sites require an article length of around 500 words – this is to help to ensure that the articles that are submitted are worthwhile reading. As with the other mentioned social media categories, making an article all about a special you are running won’t earn you anything and will probably not be published – most sites have a waiting period of up to 7 days so that the articles can be reviewed.

There are many free article submission sites online such as eZineArticles and ArticleBase. You will be able to find lists of these sites on forums and in blogs – all you have to do is search.

5. Social networking sites
These sites put you in touch with people of similar interests. You are able to create groups that you can send updates to, network with other members and on some sites post articles that the members of the groups may find interesting. Some examples are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

The thing to remember with social media is that pretending to be involved isn’t enough to earn you the traffic you need. If you are interested, people will be interested in you – show them your interest. Let your audience know that you have opinions and knowledge to share, or questions to ask.

More importantly – make sure your business will benefit from this aspect of SEO as it is time consuming and hard work needs to be put in. Articles and blog posts need to be optimised for the search engines, profiles needs to be created, forums and blogs need to be checked and contributed to. But what’s anything without a little hard work?

 Even with a small amount of experience in the world of social bookmarking, you’ve undoubtedly come across someone saying you need to fill out your profile. Why is that important? Well it helps to draw targeted eyeballs (prospects) to your online business. You match what they are looking for. Does it work? Well in theory, yes. But in the real world, you may find varying results. 

What doesn’t work so well for many people is those eyeballs don’t always convert very successfully to leads. Then, on top of that, the few leads you do get don’t always convert well into buying customers.

If this is your experience, first realize you are not alone. Second, understand that does not mean that “working” social bookmarking sites are a waste of time. You have the power and control to leverage your time using social bookmarking sites.

How to MAKE It Work 
It may sound simple,  but it’s not easy. If you want a responsive audience, then give ‘em what they like. Doing this will virtually guarantee you that they will promote you and spread your content. Be more entertaining. Offer more education. Connect and cater to them with more of what’s going to make a difference in their lives, and they will become a follower, and maybe even a friend. When they emotionally link to you, they will virtually link to you, which is an incredibly valuable experience. It’s so important that Google determines your rankings by how many and what type of websites link to your site. So, if you can develop yourself on the social bookmarking sites as an expert — one who gives great value and resources, then you will realize a lot of one-way, incoming links. That one simple, interactive strategy can make you very visible and popular. Google likes people who are visible and popular and rewards them with better search listings.

Research what the needs are of your audience. You’ll quickly see how those can become the keywords from which searchers will find you, first in social bookmarking sites, then Google. When a Google searcher types in a keyword phrase, they are looking for something specific. You want your name, brand and website address to be found in that path. We want them to “stumble over your info.” Give them the reasons they need to click on through to your site. Google brings them to your door…now it’s your turn to really show them why they should “come in.” 

So it’s not really any social bookmarking site that is to blame for your lack of results. Instead look at what the prospect sees. Is this information worth looking at? It’s similar to the old adage GIGO – garbage in, garbage out. 

G. Wayne Clayton is the founder and Chief Visionary Officer of Integerol/SocialMarketingExpert.org. He’s a former newspaper publisher and investigative journalist. He has been seen seen and heard on CNN, Fox News Talk radio, quoted in The Toronto Star and is a Guest Blogger on FastCompany.com.

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They participated in a learning series that trains employees about the basics of Web 2.0.  The class was about social bookmarking, tagging and labels.

To learn how to get started and to make the most out of your social bookmarking skills check out the Commoncraft video below, Social Bookmarking in Plain English.