Social marketing is a great way to connect with and learn about your target market. Social sites like MySpace or Facebook help develop relationships with your prospects in a relaxed, no-sell environment. When you write an article like this one, you can use content sharing sites to "bookmark" the article and help others find what you have written. Examples of bookmarking sites would be Digg, Stumble Upon, and del.icio.us. There are many, many more.

Here's a specific example of what I love about network marketing! I received a comment on my blog a few weeks ago from a young man, Tamal Anwar, in Bangladesh. The fact that blogs can be interactive is what makes it a great social marketing tool. Anyway, over the course of our exchange, I wound up regularly visiting his blog. The more I get to know Tamal, through his blog and our (now email) correspondence, the more I am struck by what a unique opportunity the internet has opened up for us. Web 2.0 has made the internet a two-way interaction. No longer do we visit a site, see what it says and leave. Now we are able to connect in some way with other people on that site. How else would a middle-aged woman living in Texas wind up corresponding with a 20-something in Bangladesh?

Today, I received an email from Tamal inviting me to be a "guest blogger" on his blog. I love this idea! As he pointed out, we each have our own readers list. He knows that my blog has been doing well in the search engine rankings. By linking his blog to mine, his rankings will go up. Inviting someone to be a guest on his blog provides his readers with additional content and a variety of writing styles. So, he benefits and his readers benefit. I benefit as well. He is offering me yet another platform from which to attract prospects. I also like the idea of entering in a joint venture opportunity with such an ambitious and hardworking fellow network marketer! Tamal has created a definite win-win situation here.

There are a lot of baby boomers out there, just like me, entering the world of network marketing. We are at a disadvantage in the sense that we have not grown up with the internet as have our younger counterparts.

Social network marketing through content sharing will help build your prospect list as people respond to your content and find value in what you offer. If you had to pay for this kind of exposure, you'd be broke in no time! But you can use this incredible resource for your business without paying a dime. Ain't it great?