“Social Media” basically means user generated content. Web sites where the actual users are the ones who contribute the content of the site.

Social media and social network marketing and Web 2.0 are all the rage and are the “new” trends online, but social sites and social networking on the internet is as old as the internet itself.

Ever since the 1980s there have been “bulletin board sites” and “discussion forums” or “message boards” that were used by like-minded groups of people and these were the original “social media” sites.

The difference today is that the new social media trend is like taking those early social sites and putting them on rocket fuel! It really is a whole new level. The new social media tsunami, better known as “Web 2.0″ is an internet marketer’s people magnet.

Why Web 2.0?

They call it web 2.0 as an analogy to software and applications. There have been a couple upgrades to this movement:

Web 1.0 was static. Web site owners, or “webmasters” were the ones who provided the content and you as a viewer had little options other than bring a reader of that content. Passive readers.

Web 2.0 introduced the ability for the readers of the content to contribute to the creation, growth and syndication of that content. You can add profiles, videos, pics, articles, comments and a whole lot more. It’s interactive and you have power to mold the site to suit you and your interests.

You or anyone else for that matter, can publish your own blogs and comment on other people’s blogs and you can meet and network with other people and make connections with like-minded people all over the world. You’re now a participant on the World Wide Web and your voice and contributions matter.

The social networking impact of the Web 2.0 internet has created millions of internet based villages, or communities where like-minded people network and build relationships… they share, return, and carry on discussions and they become an important part of a person’s daily routine.

Some Examples of Popular Social Media Properties Online:

MySpace – Personal networking community

Digg – News syndication site. People submit their news stories here and rate.

YouTube – People upload and share video content

HubPages – People create minisites to share content on a variety of topics

Photobucket – Sharing of photos

The list is enormous and is growing daily. Some are huge sites of general interest, while others are micro sites which are very “niche-specific” like Scrapbook.com and similar focused social media sites.

Social Media Marketing has quickly become a mandatory component to any legitimate Attraction Marketing strategy. It’s a free way to create buzz, gain search engines visibility through a growing incoming links (backlinks) network to your main marketing site and also for branding and generating direct, targeted traffic to any online sales funnel.

For more detailed information on how you can use social media marketing to generate cash flow and simply model a simple, proven system that works well with this marketing model, visit the Global Cashflow Systems information site.

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