If you’ve been online for any length of time, you’ve surely heard that you must include social media in your marketing efforts. In fact, from LinkedIn to Facebook to Twitter to MySpace to Flickr, social media sharing sites offer great opportunities for entrepreneurs to reach their audiences. But many professionals aren’t fully leveraging the power of social media and may be missing out on a lot of potential new customers. Here are some highly effective out-of-the-box ways to use social media that will help you find people who need and want what you have to offer:

1. Follow Those Who Follow Those You Follow. Can you say that ten times fast? Basically, we’re simply playing the familiar game of Six Degrees of Separation. There is likely a big overlap between your market and the followers of the people you’re already following. For instance, if you’re in the DIY home remodeling market, and you follow the big names like Ty Pennington and Bob Vila, many of your potential customers are probably among Ty and Bob’s followers, friends, and contacts. On most social media sites, it’s easy to see the names in your contacts’ lists of friends and followers, so go ahead and follow or friend these people. Chances are, a good number of them will return the favor, and you’ll grow your potential customer base as a result.
2. Watch What You (and Other People!) Say. You’ll find many followers and contacts by watching for chats, conversations, and topics that are related to your niche. For instance, if you’re in the personal finance field, you could search for Twitter mentions of words and phrases such as “debt,” “frugality,” and “home mortgage.” If you identify a chat or an ongoing conversation in your field, immediately follow the participants. Again, a large percentage of them will follow you in return.
3. The Writing Is on the Wall. Go to Facebook fan pages, which are now called “Like” pages.  Look around for pages that are related to your niche and watch who is writing on the wall. Scoop these people into your funnel by issuing them a friend invitation, or sending them a message about their post or update. If they’re complete strangers, include a note in your invitation to let them know why you’d like to make their acquaintance.
4. A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words. Even though online photo sharing sites like Flickr.com and Photobucket.com host millions of images, many people still overlook them as a resource for finding potential customers. But not you! You know that images are powerful, and anyone who is going to go to the trouble of posting, say, a photo of their new Nike running shoes may be a perfect audience member for your site about trail running. You can search photos and images by keywords and tags, and look at groups, too. In addition, you can easily leave comments, ask questions, join groups, and invite people to become your contacts – and hopefully, eventually your customers.

Chances are, you are already active on several online social media sites, though you may not have gotten the results you were hoping for.  The key is to approach them a little differently. If you’re a specialist in natural health on LinkedIn, think about where you could find some of “your” people. Could they be tucked away in groups for chiropractors, naturopaths, aromatherapists, ayurvedic practitioners or whatever your target audience might be? Think outside the box, and you’ll get a lot more out of your social media activities.