We’ve all witnessed the wild profusion of social media on the Internet. Emerging as a backlash against inflexible, algorithm-based, corporate-style sites—where all content flows from the site owner to the visitors—social media sites have taken the Internet by storm. Today, some of the most expensive (and, indeed, most visited) pieces of “real estate” on the Internet are social media sites. And there’s a good reason for this: these sites are popular; and they’re becoming more popular each day. People like to go places where they can interact with other people; and places like Myspace and YouTube seem to do the trick better than corporate-style sites that do not allow for any interaction or two-way feedback.

You might think: “great. I bet the owners of YouTube and Myspace are making a fortune, but how about me?” What you might not realize is that these sites aren’t only goldmines for their owners–media giants like Google and News Corp—but they are also goldmines for any smaller business that puts in the effort to use them as a marketing medium. That’s right: even you could cash on the social media craze; and the best part is that you can do it without starting the next YouTube. You can simply harness the sites already in place to build a reputation and drive visitors to your already-existing products and services. Sound good? Then keep reading.

Social media marketing isn’t easy. In fact, it is highly dependent on your being creative, intelligent, and hardworking. Using social media increases your ability to become publically recognized, but it also increases your ability to become publically loathed. With that said, there are some things you must keep in mind, so that you can become recognized, rather than loathed. I have included a list of some of these items below.

1. No matter what medium you use to market, you absolutely must gain credibility before you make sales. Spamming is not the way to do this. If, for instance, you decide to use Myspace, do not bomb all of your newly added “friends” with dozens of bulletins announcing some product offer. This is the best way to lose these friends, lose credibility, and make no sales whatsoever. The same could be said for putting videos up on YouTube: take some time to put thought, creativity, and orignality into your videos. Churning out boring, trite, pixelated, poorly-edited videos and slapping them up on YouTube will do little for your business – except possibly tarnish your reputation.

3. In social media, only truly creative or outstanding works become viral—that is, spread beyond your small group of “friends” and continue to get passed on to new people. Your goal, as a social media marketer, should be to create “viral products.” This means that you should spend more time on fewer, high-quality projects, rather than less time on many projects. Here, less is more. Concentrate on a few big video or product launches and you’ll gain far more traction than you could with an never-ending onslaught of small projects.

3. Target your “friends” carefully. Sites such as Myspace and Facebook give you the ability to search for “friends” (read: prospects) by categories and sub-categories. Take advantage of this. If you simply add friends and then send out bulletins, you may as well be harvesting emails with a bot and sending out spam. The results will be about the same: no one will buy from you, but you may get banned.

And there you have it: three rules you should live by if you want to use social media sites to build a reputation and drive traffic to your sites. Live by these—and actually put them in place—and you will see good results over time, even if you miss all the little “secrets” that marketers tell you that you must know.