Being inundated with Facebook friend requests or Linked-In Network updates, it is really little wonder that social marketing has taken flight.
Although it may seem overwhelming at first social media Social media can be broken down into four major types:

1. Social Networking Sites -- Facebook and MySpace are two of the most popular social networking sites.
   Both sites allow you to build lists of friends and interact with people around the globe through profile pages, pictures, videos, message boards (the wall) and various technology applications.
   Both are used by businesses as well to network, communicate, manage reputation, build brand recognition, promote products and generate excitement.
   
2. Social Bookmarking Sites - Social bookmarking is a method for Internet users to store, organize, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet.
   Popular social bookmarking sites include Digg, StumbleUpon and Del.
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3. Video / Photo / Music Sharing Sites - Whether it is YouTube or Flickr, these sites allow the online user to upload, edit, organize (via tagging, for example) and share your videos and photos.
   YouTube also allows you to embed a video into your own website by copying and pasting automatically generated HTML code.
   
4. Blogging --Blogs provide the opportunity to market, inform, demonstrate and elicit feedback from your customers / readers.
   

All elements of social marketing are valuable when used in concert with each other.
Each is vital to long term social marketing success.
Social Media Marketing may look intimidating at first blush.
"Traditional" thinking may even deem it trivial and unnecessary.
It shouldn't be so.
The Internet has radically altered the way we market ourselves and our business.
All four categories of social media can play a pivotal role in how you market, interact and promote your business.