If you're like many people, you already have a Facebook page and maybe a MySpace page. You may share your professional credentials on LinkedIn. And you may be either all atwitter - or purely puzzled - about Twitter, the hottest Hot New Thing.

Here are some important facts you need to know about the benefits of using these and other forms of "social media" to promote your business, group or event:

I use the word "revolutionized" literally - as in a radical shift. It truly is a case of "power to the people." Today, social media allows the public to communicate instantaneously and continuously about anything and everything - including your enterprise.

No longer is the media in the hands of a well-funded few; today, anyone with a computer and/or smart phone is a "publisher" able to potentially influence millions of people worldwide.

2. Marketing has become a conversation

One-way marketing - ads and classic PR - is increasingly less relevant for consumers. Consumers demand interaction from the companies they trust - and they increasingly distrust companies that don't offer honest and ongoing public interaction.

3. It's not just for 20-somethings

The fastest growing age groups on both Facebook and Twitter are people over 40. And even highly traditional marketers are responding. According to the Chicago Tribune, Kraft Foods Inc.-owned Oscar Mayer now encourages shutterbugs to post their local Wienermobile sightings on photo site Flickr. Kmart recently sent $500 gift cards to bloggers and asked them to document their shopping sprees. Companies such as Comcast Corp. and Zappos.com Inc. actively respond to customer concerns on the microblogging site Twitter.

4. It's truly smart marketing on a budget - of $0

It costs nothing but time to participate in social media. Posting on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and a dizzying host of other social sites is free. Beside a free blog, there is no other way to get assured delivery of your message to so many people for zero financial investment. (And social media is the best way to draw people to your blog.)

In short, if you want to bring dynamic and powerful marketing buzz to your business, group or event, you should be at least dipping your toe in the social media current. It's not going away. In fact, it looks to be the most important influence in marketing since the introduction of the website.

So, are you already using social media? How is it going for you?

If you want to read more about the growing importance of social media as a must-do marketing tool, here's a great article from the blog DoshDosh: http://www.doshdosh.com/the-importance-of-social-media-marketing/

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