When it comes to building your social media tribe, you can’t just put yourself and your product out there and expect people to come running. For those of us who don’t have celebrity status, creating a large, thriving community on social networks takes a lot of time and quite a bit of work.

You may have a brilliant profile with a stunning image and customized homepage, but if no one’s dropping by to see it, what’s the point? To paraphrase the old saying: if you write the perfect status update and nobody reads it, does it exist? In this case, we’d have to say no. Because the unseen status update is just as inconsequential as if you had never written one at all. And because you’re not as well known as Oprah Winfrey or Justin Bieber (not yet), you aren’t going to get any friend requests pouring in just because you’ve shown up on the scene.

So, until your big break hits, here are a few tips for increasing your friends, followers and connections:

1. You’ve got to give to get. When Tweeting or updating your Facebook status, remember to provide good content for your friends and followers. Rather than using every Tweet to plug a product or a service you provide, try offering handy tips that are relevant to your market. People love a freebie and sharing bits of your knowledge shows that you care.
2. Do some back scratching. If you want tons of people to follow you, you need to start following tons of people. If you want other experts in your area to make comments on your blogs, you need to make comments on their blogs. See where we’re going with this?
3. Reach out and touch someone. Look around online and find places where you can insert yourself into the conversations going on in your market. Join forums, LinkedIn groups, and the like and be an active participant. Make yourself known in the webosphere amongst your peers and your potential customers.
4. Get out once in a while. Stop spending the majority of your work time sitting behind a desk, glued to a computer; find out what the real people are doing these days. Attend live events and networking functions to talk with other people in your niche face-to-face. Make real live connections and get to know a different aspect of your market. Invite your new friends to follow you or visit your Facebook page.
5. Scratch your own back. If your Facebook page is busier than your Twitter, make a few status updates promoting your Twitter page. If you’ve got 500 followers on Twitter and only 16 connections on LinkedIn, update your LinkedIn profile then Tweet about it. Don’t be afraid of cross-promotion.

The most important tip we can give you for growing your social media network is to stay active. You have valuable products to offer and services to promote and things you want to say about your industry, and there are people out there who want to hear about all of it. But they can’t listen if you’re not talking. It’s just a matter of getting out there and doing it.

Knowing how to determine whether the time and energy you’re putting into your business is earning you the payoff you’re looking for is especially vital when it comes to paid search marketing campaigns. Sure, pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns can help increase your visibility online, but by how much and is the margin of increase worth the money you’re spending? More importantly, are you seeing results in your bottom line?

By analyzing your return on investment (ROI), you can more effectively determine which ads and keywords to keep using and which ones to let go of as you continue to develop and hone your SEO efforts. Understanding if the money and time you put into projects, equipment or materials is worth the payoff at the end of the day is fundamental to making decisions on whether to continue your current efforts or determining that it’s time to refocus your funds and energies.

Particular areas to examine are ad cost, the number of clicks you receive from paid listings, the number of orders resulting from those clicks and the revenue generated on the product you’re paying to list. To get your ROI, you can simply crunch a few numbers to see whether you’re getting the payoff you’re looking for. For example, the difference between the amount you paid for your ad and the revenue generated is your ad profit. Take that number, divide it by the initial cost and multiply by 100 to get your ROI for that ad.

Not a math person? Luckily most bid management programs offer click-through reports so you can see how your ad is doing. You can get data on how many times your site was listed in a search, how often a user clicked on your link and how much you’re paying for each keyword. These reports don’t offer the most in-depth information, but they are valuable in that you get an idea of where your marketing efforts stand.

More thorough reports from ROI tracking systems like AdWatcher, Trak4U and others make it easier to effectively and efficiently decide which campaigns to continue and which to drop, thereby making you a smarter business owner and ensuring that you spend your money and time in the best ways possible.

Whether you’re explaining a service that your company provides or offering an instructional reference for a product you sell, video is a fantastic way to reach out to your customers and connect with them on a level that is hard to achieve with mere copy on a webpage. Because your customers can get a glimpse of you and your products in action, you can further personalize your services and create a relationship with them that you may not otherwise achieve.

No longer restricted to holiday gatherings and family vacations, personal videos these days span a wide range of subjects from pranks trying to capture the big prize on America’s Funniest Videos to DIY marketing and promotional materials. Thanks to the Internet and easily accessible video cameras, you can create and upload your very own product commercials in less time than it will take us to finish writing this article.

With your marketing videos, you have fresh, inexpensive content that you can add to your website, electronic marketing materials, Facebook page and link to via Twitter. Then, of course, there’s Youtube, the online video distribution platform that has skyrocketed the success and notoriety of businesses of every kind imaginable.

As they write on their site, “YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe,” and, it’s free! Similar to other social networking sites, YouTube allows you to create a personal page and solicit followers so that you have one more avenue for reaching out and communicating with your community.

Grab your best products, pull out that Flip camera you got last Christmas and get ready to reap the benefits of video marketing. Lights, camera, action!

These days everyone seems to be obsessed with social media. From Facebook updates to Twitter tweets, you can keep track of what most of your friends are doing or feeling or thinking twenty-four hours a day. And, if you’re active with your account, they can keep track of your thoughts and ideas as well, which is why your business absolutely must have profiles with regular updates in both of these communities.

Marketing through social media is different than traditional methods of advertising and promoting your business. Rather than selling products, the goal of social media marketing is to create a relationship with your clients that is more than simply buyer-seller based. Through your Facebook and Twitter accounts you can get to know your clientele and learn how you can further accommodate their needs. You can also show them that you care about those needs and are in business for reasons other than just making money.

It’s important to know that effective social media marketing is not something that’s going to happen overnight. Dedication (and patience) is key and regular, consistent posts on both of your accounts are essential for becoming part of the online conversation.  While the occasional tweet or Facebook update can offer a discount on your product or advertise a sale, you should keep the majority of your content focused on adding value for your clientele with things like providing helpful hints or tips.

The goal is to create an authentic persona for your business. People like dealing with people, and social media marketing is a way to remind your clientele that your business is more than just a shopping cart on a website.