Building your online brand through social media marketing is a snap. Okay, a long series of snaps spread out over several days, but still it’s easy, and it’s free.

If you’ve been paying attention to what people are doing online, you’ve heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogging. Basically, if you found this article, you’re technically savvy enough to deal with tools like that. You know they can build your online brand.

But, what most people don’t realize is that building an online brand doesn’t just involve opening up the social media toolbox and blasting out sales messages. Nothing will harm your online brand quicker than social media spam.

Social media marketing isn’t about numbers, it’s about relationships. Do your customers feel like they have a relationship with you? Do they know you care about them as people, not as sales targets? Online brands that build these relationships with people tend to be more successful than those that just treat them like numbers.

Here are five ways you can improve your brand through proper social media marketing techniques.

1) Listen

Rather than sending out constant messages about upcoming sales and special offers, “turn the bullhorn around,” Tara Hunt says in her book, “The Whuffie Factor.” People are talking about you, whether it’s complaints, questions, feedback, or compliments. Social media tools help you listen to them, and answer back where they are, rather than where you want them to go.

It’s also important to listen before you just jump in and start talking. Whether it’s Twitter or a specialty social media group, listen to what people are saying before you start talking about your online brand. Learn what the tone of the group is, and match it. Make sure the tone is right for your online brand, and a place you would actually want to associate with people.

2) Answer questions

This is where your online brand can prove some real worth to potential customers. Take any opportunity you can to answer questions in your field, not just about your online brand. If you’re a video marketing consultant, answer anyone’s questions about how to make online videos. Whether it’s about the best video camera to buy, how to edit video clips, or even how to do video marketing (yes, seriously). By doing this, you’ll establish your online brand as being someone who is knowledgeable and helpful.

3) Be a resource

This goes hand in hand with answering questions. Rather than waiting for people to ask something you can answer, push out other helpful information and articles. Forward articles you’re reading to your network. Help them learn, and show potential customers that you’re constantly keeping up to date. By staying on top of industry trends, you’re more able to help them with their own issues.

4) Be yourself

This sounds like advice our parents gave to us in high school, but it’s still good advice, even [**system error**] years later. Nothing kills an online brand like being inauthentic. This is where your personality and your face needs to shine through. Remember, you are your brand. If you’re a funny, quirky person, then your online brand should match it (within reason, of course). If you’re a caring person, then your online brand should be caring as well.

5) Gather more people like you

This is the fun part. This is where you build your network of people who can be potential customers, or even potential referral partners. The easiest way to do it is just to check out people who are already in your network, and see who they’re following or are connected to. You can be fairly safe in assuming that the people they’re following are people who have similar interests and are in the same field.

These techniques will apply to any social media tool. Remember, social media marketing is about engaging in relationships and conversations with customers. By using these techniques, you can help build your online brand and reach your ideal customers.

Business promotion is getting easier and cheaper, thanks to social media. However, don’t mistake cheap and easy with ineffective or a waste of time.

Many experienced businesspeople are still married to traditional marketing and business promotion techniques. They still think in terms of advertising in broadcast and print media. They still think about eyeballs, open rates, and CPMs (cost per thousand views). They’re thinking about impressions, drive time, and prime time. But business promotion has grown beyond traditional marketing and advertising, and moved online.

Why Is Business Promotion Changing?

It’s because of Generation Y and the explosive growth of social media. There are 82 million members of Generation Y (compared to the 78+ million Baby Boomers), and 96% of them are on a social network of some sort. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or other networks, these online tools have reshaped business promotion as we know it.

If you want to reach Generation Y through business promotion, consider social media as your best bet. It costs less than traditional advertising, can be targeted to reach only the people you want, and can easily be measured. The problem with traditional advertising is that you can’t effectively measure whether it was your TV commercials or billboards that resulted in increased sales, and even if one of them was more effective.

How Can I Use Social Media for Online Business Promotion?

Social media is all about communicating and building trust through relationships. By speaking to your customer base on their terms and their turf, you can earn their trust a lot more easily, which can make your business promotion much more effective. Generation Y spends a lot of time online, getting their news and entertainment from the web. They communicate via text messages on their cell phone. And they are the biggest consumer of mobile videos of any generation.

Social media is becoming more popular and widespread. The biggest demographic on Facebook may still be Generation Y, but the fastest growing one is women 50 and over. If that was your biggest customer base, how would you reach them? You could advertise during shows that women over 50 typically watch, but you’re not going to necessarily reach them. Plus, you need to repeat those ads many times, which will get expensive. But with Facebook, you can create fan pages and groups specifically for your target audience. You can even purchase ads that are served only to women in their 50s. You can’t do that with traditional advertising.

Your online business promotion campaign should consist of Twitter, Facebook and/or MySpace, and blogging. Set up accounts, fan pages, blogs, and communicate with your potential customers about the things they want to talk about. Don’t tell them what you do, talk to them about what they do, like, and enjoy. Become a resource for their interests by forwarding articles, providing tips, and telling people about other resources that meet their interests and needs.

Whenever possible, use online business promotions to support your offline promotions as well. If you’re attending a trade show, are sponsoring a special event or team, or are still using traditional marketing, tell people about it through your social networks.

If you’re at a trade show, encourage people on Twitter to stop by your booth. If you’re sponsoring a special event, talk it up on your Facebook fan page. Or if you’re sponsoring a sports team, consider setting up a fan page for that team. Put your Twitter account and Facebook URL in your advertisements, and encourage people to follow you or become fans. There’s no reason these two business promotion methods have to be separate.

While we’re not predicting the death of traditional marketing methods, we are encouraging you to add social media as a big part of your business promotion toolbox.