Here's a hypothetical situation for you, small business owner/independent contractor. You've recently opened shop. Your ecommerce site is up and functioning. You're ready to start writing freelance articles for all the big players in your industry. The next thing you do is sign up for accounts with Twitter, Facebook, and Google +.

Now that your social media campaign is set up, it's time to sit back and wait for those leads to pour in, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way. Establishing your brand online can be a full time job unto itself. A few tweets here and there can easily get lost in the shuffle.

How do you raise your profile? By being a chatterbox, of course. You should try to interact with other people in your industry as much as possible in order to say to potential clients, "Hey, I'm here. I think you would benefit from using my services." If you aren't doing the following, try adding more of it to your daily operations:

Comment on Blog Posts and Forums

This is the best way to introduce yourself to the community at large. If you're looking to break into a new industry, seek out a few blogs that are respected and comment on some posts. Not only is it nice to acknowledge an author's hard work, but people will be reading your opinions. If your input is valuable, they'll want to learn more about you and check out your site.

Interact on Your Facebook Page

Many people make the mistake of treating their Facebook business page like some static entity. You'll only get out what you put into it. Make it feel more like a community. Respond to comments, supply a steady amount of content and, most importantly, reach out to people in order to grow your number of "Likes."

Use Twitter For More Than Advertising

Don't use Twitter to just send out links to your homepage.  Be a real person. RT something that catches your interest, engage in conversation, be funny, etc. The best advertising you can do is getting people to enjoy reading what you have to say. The traffic will come naturally if you give people a reason to come to your site.

Need more tips on how to get the most out of your social media network? Send me an email adragonetti@webimax.com