Social media is an excellent way to promote your business and build your brand. It is also a great way to attract new visitors to your company’s website or blog. It takes time to build your brand presence on social media however you need to start somewhere. Following are 10 useful ways to use social media to promote your business or your website.

1. Create a Facebook Fan Page

A Facebook page or fan page is an excellent way to get some extra publicity. You can create a page for your company, blog or brand.. You can use tools to automatically post status updates whenever new content is added to your website or blog. This is a great way to ensure your Facebook page is up to date and fresh.

You can make a custom branded Facebook page likeVictoria’s Secret below.

2. Be Active on Twitter

There are many benefits of using Twitter. Simply creating a profile is not enough. Posting frequently is a great way to get new followers. Share a range of information useful for your audience. Share new content from your website as well as general information related to your niche from other external sources. You can also take steps to ensure your content is ReTweeted by others as If your post goes viral, visits to your website can increase manifold.

3. Create a MySpace Page

The popularity of MySpace has declined in recent years however it is still a good place to get some extra exposure and back links for your website or blog. There are tools you can use to syndicate content from your blog which will ensure content is fresh and up to date.

4. Look Beyond Facebook and Twitter

Don’t limit yourself to Facebook and Twitter. There are many social media sites for business that you can benefit from. Use many sites for maximum exposure. Use general sites as well as those that specifically target your industry. Spinn.com for example is a niche social media site that targets SEO or Internet marketing companies. Stumble Upon is another great site that can drive huge traffic.

5. Create a Squidoo Lense

Squidoo is a user generated content site where you can create a free page, referred to as lense, on any topic of interest to you. By creating a presence on Squidoo, you can benefit from quality back-links and added exposure for your company. Squidoo pages ranks high on Google and it may be easier to rank than your own website, particularly if your site is new.. You can either create a brand page for your company or create individual lenses on a relevant topic.

6. Use HubPages

Hubpages is a popular website similar to Squidoo. You can create a Hub for Your Company’s Website or Blog or create hubs on relevant topics. You benefit from back-links to your website as well as increased exposure for your brand.

7. Submit your Website to Directories

There are many free online directories you can add your website to. Additionally, there are niche blog directories for listing your blog. I personally have not seen drastic increase in traffic by listing my site to directories. However, they still offer an easy way to get back links to your website and in some cases some new visits to your website.

8. Take Advantage of Social Bookmarking and News Sites

Social Bookmarking websites allow you to share links to online content. It can be links to specific pages on your website, blog posts, articles or any other content available online. High ranking social bookmarking and news websites such as Digg, Delicious, Reddit and Stumble Upon have the potential to drive huge traffic even in the short term. Social bookmarking is one of the most effective and easiest ways to get visitors to your website.

9. Submit Articles to Article Directories

Article marketing involves writing articles on general topics relevant to your field and publishing them on various article directories. Articles include a link to your website that helps improve your search engine rank in addition to attracting new visitors to your website.

For best results, publish regularly on leading article directories such as EzineArticles, Web Pro News or ArticleDashboard. You can take additional steps to get the most from article marketing.

10. Take Advantage of Document Sharing Sites

Like article directories, you can use document sharing websites to generate back links and traffic to your website. There are many high ranking document sharing websites such as Scribd, Slideshare and DocStoc that allow you to publish documents and share it with others.  You can publish document in various formats including Word, Powerpoint or PDF. You can even re-use content from your existing articles or blog posts. Remember to include a back link to your website.

11. Participate in Forums related to Your Niche

Participating in leading forums from your niche helps establish your influence as well as offer exposure for your brand. By including links in your forum signature, you can get new traffic to your website as well as improve your website’s rank on search engines. It is important not to spam and add value to discussions.

12. Participate in on Blogs related to Your Niche

Like forums, commenting on other blogs related to your niche will help improve your influence. Links in your comment profile further can help drive visitors to your website.

This post is courtesy of London based Web Design Company specialising in custom Web design & Internet Marketing.