In their infancy, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter were used to communicate with friends and family only. In recent years, however, social media has become a major force in marketing. This article will help you to turn your Facebook and Twitter profiles into valuable marketing tools.

Try your best to be humble when you post on various social media sites. It doesn't matter how good your reputation is or how many followers you have, being arrogant or boastful can hurt your image. Always remember that you're not more important than your customers and followers. Here are the cornerstones of success.

Home or small business owners should not have any substitutes for their own presence on social media sites. Your social media profile pages and your business will suffer if people detect that you are using an auto-responder. The reason is that these messages can easily come across as spam. It might be quicker for you, but it's annoying to your subscribers.

There is data suggesting that people tend to read marketing messages on social media sites during business hours on weekdays. You can use tools that will post automatic updates to your social media accounts, setting them up to post during the times when your content is most likely to be seen. This strategy allows you to write posts whenever you have a spare minute, too.

Subscribe to your competitors' updates. Look them up on different social networks and analyze their techniques. You can either do something similar to what your competitors are doing, or develop an entirely new strategy.

Share the updates of influential Twitter users or mention them in your posts by including their usernames after the symbol @. When the user sees that you have created a post, that person will be highly likely to respond or to repost your original post.

Broadcast your content wherever you can. Fill your social network sites with information filled articles that are of interest to people you would like to attract. Also consider posting at sites including HubPages and Associated Content. If necessary, hire people to create content for you.

Be aware of the voice you intend to use while advertising. People will not take too kindly to advertising speak if you're communicating with them on a social media website. Mirror the tone and language your followers use in order to get the most out of your campaign.

Update your Facebook regularly for the most effective marketing. Your customers want to know what is new and prefer to read fresh content. Put your content on Facebook right after you create it. You will get more "bang for your buck" this way.

Make your headlines pop. Due to the fast nature of social media surfing, many people will see only the headline before dashing off to another site or tweet. Craft a headline that's so compelling that people will have to click and see what comes next. When you use great headlines, you are sure to get noticed!

To help attract targeted visitors to your website, you should incorporate YouTube into your social media marketing. Using this site is an effective way to attract consumers to your Internet site, because viewing videos gives them a lot of information about your products. It is easier to increase sales when you are selling to a warm market, and anyone who knows something about you before they get to your site is more likely to buy your products, because you have piqued their interest.

It's always wise to learn from past experiences, no matter whose they were. Use these lessons of success and failure to improve your present marketing plan, and thus increase your profits for the future. If you do this, you'll have it in your mind as to what works great and what isn't going to work at all when you're facing the web once again.

Let people use the social media profiles you have so they will visit your store or buy a product. Keep followers informed about both your online and your live endeavors from special sales to new store locations. Offer special discounts or coupons exclusively through your Facebook or other social networking page. You have to give people a real reason to add and promote you on these sites.

Gain exposure on Facebook by sharing it with members on your mailing list. If you've done online marketing, you probably are aware of and have your own mailing list. Send a link to your Facebook to everyone on your list. This simplifies the process of finding your social media sites for your customers.

Think differently about social media. There are more uses for these sites than just playing games or posting something clever in 140 characters. There is a whole new potential customer base waiting for you there. Since you have finally read through the above tips, you should have a better understanding of how to manipulate social media to your advantage. Log onto your favorite site and get started.