I used to recommend that every blogger and marketer use StumbleUpon actively because it was a great way to get quick results. However, the results from StumbleUpon have tailed off from what they used to be and Twitter seems to be generating positive results for a higher number of people. Being active on Twitter doesn’t require that you constantly send out tweets about anything and everything – it can be done with much less time investment. The first thing to do is to create an account and start following a lot of people in your niche or industry. There are a lot of Twitter lists and directories (see WeFollow) online that will help you find the right people. Once you’re following some people, you can reply to their tweets, start conversations of your own, and click through to other users who have been mentioned and follow them if you deem their tweets useful. When you have new content, you can share a link to your website or blog with your followers. As your influence grows, your results will improve: more followers and active followers will result in more clicks on your links, more visits to your website(s), and more Re-Tweets (RT).

Following the success of major social media sites, there was a big increase in the number of niche-specific social media sites that began popping up. While these sites tend to have smaller audiences than the major social media sites, they present excellent opportunities to get your content in front of a targeted audience. You’ll receive fewer visitors from a front page appearance on a niche social media site compared to a front page visit on a major social media site, but a higher percentage of those visitors will fall into your target market. Additionally, getting to the front page will typically only require a few votes, which can be easily achieved. Getting actively involved and having your content featured repeatedly on niche sites can produce excellent results.

One of the most important factors that will determine success with social media marketing is your network. Almost every successful blogger and social media marketer is very well connected. It’s hard to be effective at social media marketing without having a number of strong connections. Most people who have a lot of success with social media will request votes in one way or another. Maybe it is a formal request like sharing a site on StumbleUpon, but many times it is informal, like an e-mail or a direct message (DM) on Twitter.

Sharing requests is a great way to get some easy votes for your content. Ideally, you’ll want to have some people in your network that are using the same social media sites as you and interested in the same type of content. This way, you can each share requests with each other and no one is taking advantage of the other. Requesting votes can be a touchy subject, but most people who are actively marketing their website or blog are more than interested in finding some “friends” for sharing votes. Get to know people in your niche, see who is promoting their content, and reach out to them about the possibility of helping each other.