Consider this: More than 1.25 billion people use the web every day--from grocery shopping to gift buying, from purchasing auto parts to booking professional business services and doing research and connecting. The amount of "noise" generated from all advertising and promotional platforms is positively deafening. So how do you navigate this vast, often overwhelming place? What platforms should you know about? Which spaces will produce results and drive sales? The following tips will help you get a handle on some of the top viral venues so you can create buzz for your brand and boost your bottom line. This is the first of a two-part column on embracing web technologies to develop buzz and differentiate your brand.

Modern Marketing 101
Before you can make sound choices, it's important to know the turf you're operating on. Bottom line: We're not in Kansas anymore. The tried-and-true marketing model--where companies used varied kinds of outreach (direct mail, print ads, radio) to promote their wares or services to a broad number of people, hoping to attract enough customers--is dead. Measurable inbound online marketing, used in concert with a careful blend of other traditional marketing platforms, is what it's all about now. In this new and evolving marketing schematic, the center of your brand-developing, information-sharing, connection-facilitating, sales-generating mix is your website.

Going forward, successful companies will communicate their value, connect with prospects and capture new sales by testing a diverse group of web-based initiatives while also employing strategic use of cross-linking, e-mail marketing, podcasting, online videos and e-newsletters.

In the beginning days of the internet, folks got better traffic (and enhanced opportunities for new sales) by following the rules of the Almighty Search Engines (primarily Google and Yahoo!). As the internet grew and evolved, the rules became more complicated, and the competition exploded. Marketers began vying for everyone's attention. But today, smart entrepreneurs can create a dominant brand--and measurable inbound traffic and sales--by being where people are gathering now, according to marketing guru and author Seth Godin. So what does this mean to you, the budding or growth-track entrepreneur?

Today, people are gathering, communicating and getting business through a dizzying number of social networking sites. In these spaces, people are blurring work/life boundaries. They're weighing in on breaking news, doing research, posting pictures and videos, creating new niche interest groups and opining on everything from child-care options and business travel experiences to movies and books, new technology, conferences, job queries and referrals.

If you don't think these social networking spaces are valid business interaction and sales spaces, think again. LinkedIn, a business-focused venue created by OPEN by American Express, has more than 24 million users; Facebook, originally a meeting space inhabited primarily by college students, high schoolers and tweens, has swiftly grown to more than 175 million members around the globe.

LinkedIn and Facebook each offer multiple communication, advertising and interaction options, including spaces where you can pose or answer questions, share up-to-the-minute news, post pictures, download white papers and e-books or create multiple inbound links to your website.

Twitter.com--the microblogging site whose users succinctly answer the question, "What are you doing now?" (only 140 characters per "tweet," please)--is being used by doctors to share details of a procedure as they operate, People are also connecting with fellow attendees at business conferences and trade events, reporting breaking news and asking for input, sources or resources about a wide range of topics. As of December 2008, comScore reports, Twitter boasted 1.9 million users. Recently those users achieved 1 billion tweets in one day. That's a whole lot of communicatin' going on.

Laura Fitton, aka @Pistachio, is among the most inspiring Twitter success stories. Admitting that she originally thought it was "stupid," this Massachusetts native soon saw the ramifications of microsharing when she started to tweet as much as she could about her daily doings and field of expertise (the intelligent and productive uses of emergent technologies such as social media and their practical applications for communicating, and promoting business and brands). Fitton now has more than 19,000 followers. Is she really following all her followers? Doubtful. But her manic, insightful tweeting has enabled her to propel her own brand and business into the limelight, resulting in lucrative speaking and consulting gigs, top-shelf media coverage in BusinessWeek and The New York Times, and two book deals.

The Rules of Engagement
Before you run pell-mell into social networking land, it's important to know that each community has its own unique uses, field of engagement, language, persona, customization choices, graphic options and security settings. Develop a strategy before you get started, then test a variety of platforms to see which best suits your brand, products and services.

While these portals are still mostly free, understand that starting a conversation and building a following and a community take a solid investment of time. Successful social business networkers aren't blatant about self-promotion, unlike old-school marketing gurus. Instead, these new-age marketers educate their friends or followers first, creating fans and buyers in the process.

In addition to the major networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and YouTube, stroll over to some local online social networking interaction platforms, such as the Charleston Young Professionals in Charleston, S.C., or CBS Newsradio 880's Small Business Network in New York City. Other growing national/global players include: squidoo.com, Plaxo.com, Naymz and FastPitch.

Other valuable online distribution, communication and interaction channels are Delicious, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. Others worth checking out include:

Don't panic at the sheer volume of tools available. Take small steps, but make it a priority in '09 to get your company listed on a few social networking spaces. Take the time to test how each platform works, learn how others are producing buzz, and investigate different ways you can get conversations started and secure more business via these social networking tools.

Next: More ways to build your brand online.