I use targeted social media marketing. I find some methods to be more successful than others for what I do. It needs to be targeted because of my desired audience that makes up my business. If I were to send blanket messages out, I would be wasting my energy. Sure, it may peak interest, but there is little to no conversion.

For example, my target audience is probably not going to come from making tweets, even with the hash tags, etc.

Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google provide me with the ability to target my audience by selecting certain "keywords" or information from profiles. This type of advertising/marketing is not new but using new technology and new platforms which to go about it; Think phone book, or targeted mailing lists.

As with anything in business, it is a numbers games; the more you reach out, the more likely you will reach someone who will appreciate what you have to offer. These are the ones who have not considered what you have to offer and are curious because they are thinking about it after learning a little or they are thinking what the heck.

The other side of this is finding people and getting in contact with them directly because you connected with them, came across their profile doing a search, or was recommended by someone else.

The hardest part for me about trying to make these platforms work is the sheer amount of data that must be gone through. You may send a message out but depending on how many people others follow, it can bury your message among so many other messages if people are connected to a large amount of people and have a robust activity stream.

I have noticed twitter has the promoted follow suggestions but to me twitter is too restricted in its format. Now, if you had a celebrity or high profile person, then it would make sense when people are driven to follow them and activity seek out what they write, but that is how I see that platform. Some celebrities are paid outside the system for mentioning products or services as an example.