Many business owners look askance at social networking as a search engine optimization tool. But the truth is that social networking has become mainstream, and many businesses are quickly learning just how important it is to connect with their target audience using social networking sites. It is particularly important for small businesses that need all the help they can get to compete with larger competitors who have enormous marketing budgets. So just accept the fact that social networking needs to be part of your overall marketing campaign and start here:

1. Facebook. Facebook is very user friendly and popular across demographic groups. Start by creating a business profile. Fill out as much as you can on the profile and start getting Fans. Fans are the equivalent of Friends in Facebook-ese, but Fans are friends of a business while Friends are friends of individuals. At the very least you need to start with your logo, your business description, and your contact information. Then ask your friends and family on Facebook to become Fans of your business. When a critical mass of your friends becomes Fans of your business, Facebook will start suggesting that their friends become Fans as well. It a great way to get the word out about your business without having to do all of the work yourself.

2. Twitter. Twitter is like a miniature blog in which you answer the question “What are you doing right now?” You are allowed a message consisting of no more than 140 characters, and that message is called a Tweet. Tweets can help you promote special offers, share information with your followers, or send links for coupons. The key to using Twitter effectively is to avoid turning your Tweets into hard sell promotions or blatant sales pitches. Make sure the information you share is valuable and you’ll find that your followers will spread the word about you to their followers. Get started by filling out a profile with as much information as possible. You’ll find that you can also use Twitter as a customer service tool. If you read a Tweet that concerns your business, you can respond immediately, which is particularly important if someone has something negative to say about your company.

3. LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a social networking site for professionals and can also be useful for search engine optimization. LinkedIn users connect with their own colleagues and friends, and can also see their connections as well. That’s really helpful if one of your connections in connected to someone you’d like to meet or do business with. You much start on LinkedIn by creating a personal profile, but once that’s completed you can create a business profile as well. As you connect with people, information about your business will spread quickly.

The best part of social networking, of course, is that it’s free, which makes it an effective search engine optimization tool for even the smallest businesses. The key to make social networking sites work for you, however, is to remain active on those sites. There’s nothing more annoying for a Facebook user than to become a Fan of a business only to see that the business never has anymore activity on the site.

If you’re still not sure how to make social networking work for your business, contact an internet marketing professional or search engine optimization expert. They can help you with everything from setting up your profile to using the different applications offered by each of the sites listed above so that you can get the word about your business to as many people as possible. Remember that the whole point of using social networking sites for search engine optimization is to create personal relationships with people so that they will trust you and eventually become your customers. So start today!