Looking for more information about Social Media? Here are a collection of essential social media 101 articles:

Need Help? vxFusion can setup your Social Media platform, and even maintain it for you, contact us to get started! vxFusion also offers social media training sessions and consulting, contact us for details!

Social Media Like a Boss – Great Uses for Facebook and Twitter:

Obvious: Promoting your business and increasing leads
Brand awareness
Coupons
Job postings
Fund-raising
Promoting events

Facebook: Profile Page versus Fan Page

Source: http://www.techipedia.com/2010/how-to-use-facebook-for-business-and-marketing/

Simply stated, for a business, you should create a Fan Page. If you are officially representing your company, you’d want to create an Official Page.

Don’t use a Facebook Group. They are outdated (from Facebook’s early days) and do not support Facebook Markup Language (FBML) or Facebook Apps, so they are not as interactive and thus do not make as strong of an impact. Additionally, don’t create a personal account (a regular Facebook profile page) for your business. You’re supposed to use your real name and you’re also only supposed to have one account. Your Facebook Page should be created under your primary Facebook login. If you elect not to have one, you can still create a Facebook page by following the steps after you fill out the relevant data for your business Facebook Page.

Facebook: Top 5 Things Not to Do on Facebook

Source: http://bx.businessweek.com/facebook/view?url=http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/9134/Top-5-Things-Not-to-Do-on-Facebook.aspx

Having 2 Profiles: Personal and Professional
Creating a Profile for Your Business Instead of a Page
Turning Off Wall Posts for Your Business Page
Not Updating Your Business Page As with wall posts or comments from your users, you want to be interacting on your own page as well. Your Facebook page should be a living, breathing thing where you can share content and engage with your customers. If you update your business page with interesting content, your users are more likely to engage with your page, and their interactions get shown to their networks, expanding your reach exponentially. This virality is what makes Facebook such an incredibly powerful tool for businesses. Don’t miss out on Facebook’s key benefit.
Not Being on Facebook Finally, if you’re not on Facebook, what are you waiting for? Facebook has over 500 million active users, many of whom log in every day. Unless your target market is 70 year old grandfathers, your audience is on Facebook. Some of the fastest growing demographics are users over 55 and the majority of Facebook users are older than college age. Whether you think your audience is not on Facebook (you’re likely wrong) or you think Facebook is a fad and will be gone in a few years (it doesn’t matter, it’s big now), you’re missing a huge opportunity by not being on Facebook.

Facebook: Give more than you receive

Source: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217815

Success in social media marketing depends on being useful and developing relationships. If you spend all of your time promoting then no one will want to listen to you. It’s not a short-term tactic, rather a long-term strategy that can deliver sustainable, organic growth through ongoing, consistent participation.

A good rule of thumb is to apply the 80-20 rule to your social media marketing efforts. Spend no more than 20 percent of your time in self-promotional activities and conversations, and at least 80 percent on non-self-promotional activities. In time, you’ll see your business grow from your efforts. And it starts with leveraging these fundamentals.

Further Reading: 20 Examples of Great Facebook Pages

Twitter: Above All, Keep It Personal

Source: http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/03/8-useful-tips-to-become-successul-with-twitter/

Tweets should be more than an endless string of press releases and links. They should include personal content and a dialogue with followers.

This is important because it enables you to make a connection with your followers. An open and honest relationship with followers is very powerful. It builds trust, loyalty and engagement. It encourages repeat traffic and word-of-mouth recommendation.

Twitter: Follow And Be Followed

Always remember that Twitter is a two-way conversation. A big part of successful tweeting is replying to those who tweet you. Twitter is not just about who follows you, either. It is also about who you follow. One service I find particularly useful is Mr Tweet. Mr Tweet provides two type of information:

first, it suggests people you might want to consider following, because they fall within your broader network (i.e. people who are followed by your friends),
secondly, it suggests those from your list of followers who you should follow back.

Further Reading: How to Use Twitter to Grow Your Business FlipSide: Is Twitter for Business Even Worth the Trouble?