Using social media to market your business is an excellent idea, however don't plan on doing it yourself or getting your friend’s daughter to do it for free!

Social media marketing is cheap, but certainly not free. There are many free tools that can be employed in social media marketing including Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, alongside Digg and StumbleUpon. There are also Free blogging tools around too, like WordPress and Twitter. The fact remains that integrating these tools into a corporate marketing program requires time, skill and money.

Companies advertise these services and claim to be social media experts calling themselves Internet marketers, Social media marketers, Social media consultants, Social media strategists, Social media experts, Social media gurus and Internet marketing gurus!

Very few have actually created a successful Social Media Marketing campaign for clients using the tools mentioned. A successful social media marketing campaign integrates social media into the many elements of marketing, including advertising, digital, and Online PR.

Opinion and theory are no match for experience, hence the best social media marketers now have more than 5 years of experience incorporating interactivity, blogs, forums, user-generated content, and contests into online marketing. The best ones having created and run social media sites themselves!

Many companies have tried to do it all in-house. It is extremely difficult to achieve success as brands need a strategy, contacts, tools, and obviously experience—a combination not generally found in in-house teams.

The truth of the matter is no matter how great your product, service or idea is you need to drive traffic to your social media effort otherwise all you have is a tree falling in the forest, heard only by those standing nearby. Contact a company that knows about Digital Marketing and has experience in social media and then let them spread your word!