How The Internet Business Can Make Money With The Social Media Sites Understanding the big picture, the business concept, of the social media sites is crucial, because it gives you the idea how to utilize them for your Internet business. What is their driving force? 1. What Is A Social Media Site? As we see, the term is built of two words: media, which means advertising distribution channel and social, which means a group of same thinkers inside some bigger group of people. It also means the interaction between the group members. Both parts are very useful for the Internet business marketing and actually belong to its basic vocabulary. So social media means communication place, which is established for people, who has the same interest or hobby, where they can change ideas and share benefits. If you think your own Internet business this sounds just great! Wikipedia puts it in this way: "Social Media is the democratization of information, transforming people from content readers into content publishers. It is the shift from a broadcast mechanism to a many-to-many model, rooted in conversations between authors, people, and peers." It is important that social media uses the crowds and their own will to connect information in a manner they want. So the social media sites are voluntary and extremely interactive, which gives lots of benefits for their members in the form of Internet business forums, message boards, weblogs, wikis, podcasts, pictures and videos. Funny thing is that social media sites are driven by users, they make the content. 2. How To Grab Attention In The Social Media Sites? When people participate in the social media, they act in interest groups, which is natural. In the Internet business marketing this is called segmentation. If an Internet business marketer wants to grab attention on the site, he has to stand out from the crowd. The requirement to be different is the same than in other mediums. Social media sites are like open markets, where you as one participant build your own brand, your own expertise, which attracts some of the group of the same thinkers and a part of these interested people want to visit your website. In a way the question is about pre-selling job, but never about advertising. If the social media site has exactly the same content or idea than your Internet business site has, then it can be a lead producer for your website directly or your website can even be able to sell the products to the visitors. In case of the leads, it gives your Internet business site a great opportunity to approach them later with several emails or newsletters. The competition in the social media sites requires that you need the AIDA process: attention, interest, desire and action. It is a process which needs planning, because the sites are full of personal messages. The most important thing is your promise: what is so useful in your offer? The social media sites offer a great place to build your own brand, which is a multi-step process. It is all about information, about influences and about feelings towards different actors. Social media marketing also involves the process of promoting and spreading ideas among targeted Internet business audiences. Social media marketing can also be used as a calculated tactic to nurture feelings or goodwill towards a specific website or Internet business. Social media marketing is a strategic and methodical process to establish your influence, reputation and brand within communities of potential customers, readers or supporters