Traditionally, the flow of information to and from people was controlled by large media distribution networks like News Corportation and Liberty Media. These network distributed informational content around the globe. With the explosion of users posting their own content, ideas and information on the internet, the media giants have realized they will only grow if they effectively use social media to engage people on the internet.

Internet users love the freedome of speech, information and expression they get from the internet and specifcally social media. Businesses are recognizing that social media and social media marketing offer unique and exciting opportunities to engage users. Social media sites like Digg allow users to broadcast and syndicate content from blogs or websites throughout the world. One of biggest differences between traditional media and online media is the speed at which information can be posted and made available. Another key difference is that once content is published, it is immediately available for comment and feedback, something that was difficult and time consuming to do with traditional media. Social media makes it easy for interesting articles to be shared and rated, thus effectivly voting on the content. The more interest, the more traffic generated.

However, marketing and advertising online has become cutthroat competitive. Large companies now utilize the internet to sell more, faster. Many people are running at-home businesses to generate income. Internet businesses can sell all over the world. Competition is fierce, and Google has released new guidelines for marketing on their site.

Even still though extremely some good social media products have been created for social media marketing for companies wanting to promote their websites and content until recently. Even though there have been a few excellent free tools like Social Bookmarker and AddUrl mainly webmasters and internet marketers have had to use spam my software or consume time submitting their content to all the applicable sites.

Recently while a product called Traffic Android was released that automates the time consuming sign up and submission process to social media sites. Is this the first of I’m sure many such helpful tools that will enter the market Social Media grow rapidly rather than detracting from it.

Competition in business is able to tell what their rivals are doing simply by reading blogs on the internet. Even our habits of photo distribution are changing. We don’t need expensive equipment, film, and darkroom knowledge anymore. A cheap inexpensive model, even most phones, will produce good quality images for use online, and distribution of these images happens instantly.

Social marketing is a new thing and an important thing for any business that relies on the web to reach people and engage users. With the next generation fo search and syndication technologies, the role of social media marketing is sure to grow. Many companies are developing social media marketing strategies now so they won’t be left behind.

Justin Harrison is an internationally recognised Internet Marketing Expert and Entrepreneur who has built up multiple 7 figure online business and consults to some of leading online brands including Amazon, BBC, AIG and many others.