Anyone who has created a website and looked into ways of getting more traffic to it has heard about building your brand through social media. There seems to be some confusion, though, about what “social media” is. Sometimes it takes quite a bit of research before we find out the truth.

Naturally, the social exchange the name implies is a big part of social media. That covers a big area, but often those self-styled gurus only emphasize the article directories. That’s usually because they have or have an affiliate link with an automated directory submission software program.

The advice is good: getting lots of articles in lots of article directories helps exposure. The question then becomes, whose “magic traffic generator” or automated submission program should you buy? The answer is probably none of them. Find a free one and see how it works, first.

Blogs cannot be created using any existing automated program. They have to be done manually. That’s why they don’t get a lot of press - there’s nothing to be sold. Don’t make the mistake of overlooking blogging just because it makes you work a little. There are some ways to speed it up, but you will still have to do much of the work yourself.

If you look around, you will find a great little form filling program. You just type in your username, password and all the other information you need for creating a blog. You can use the same info for every blog, so you only do it once, then its automated except for the captcha.

Don’t think you have to write a different blog entry for every blog. You can write one entry and submit it to all your blogs. If you have written keyword heavy articles with too many links, it may backfire on you with some social media sites like Wordpress and a few others. You may have to tone it down for these.

Don’t pay big money for false promises. If you are serious about building your brand through social media, you’re going to have to do a little work.

Buford Mobley is a successful netrepreneur that finds the new frontier of social media and social media marketing fascinating. More information can be found on his website NetBizForNewbies. Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

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