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For Christina M. Angel, marketing manager at Alkane Inc. in Lutherville, it seemed inevitable that the same social networking sites that helped her 16-year-old sister keep in touch with her friends would help Angel's company keep in touch with its customers.

"We can announce new product innovations and breaking developments in research in real time," Angel said. Alkane's recently started using sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter to encourage conversation about its alternative fuel additive, Monster Diesel, plus news about alternative energy. "We're at the forefront of the energy revolution. We're speaking to a knowledge-hungry base."

The social networking options complement Alkane's newly launched MonsterDiesel.com Web site, enabling users to purchase products online while keeping up to date with events at both Alkane and elsewhere in the energy market.

This online marketing approach is quickly gaining followers, as businesses explore using social media to better reach their customers. The trick, they say, is to start a "conversation," rather than push a message.

"These conversations are already taking place, with or without your knowledge. You need to be part of them," said Mario Armstrong, a prominent speaker on marketing through social media and owner of Mario Armstrong Media in Baltimore. "Not everyone needs [a social media account], but they need to understand how they impact business."

Social media enthusiasts describe the tools as a terrific way for small businesses to engage customers on the same levels that were once available only to larger businesses that could afford national advertising campaigns.

At the same time, these sites give larger businesses the ability to reach customers on a more personal level and give themselves a community feel, said John Moore, spokesman for the Word of Mouth Marketing Association in Chicago.

"You can reach people in a more direct manner and those conversations can be listened to by many," Moore said.

‘It gives a human voice'

VillageWorks in Frederick helps businesses strategically target their audiences online by using search and social media aggregators such as Google Alerts and Twitter Search to determine what Web sites customers are frequenting, said Beth Schillaci, president and sole member of the company.

Schillaci teaches businesses to track any instance their company, product, executive or competition pops up online.

"Consumers want two-way conversations," she said. "It gives them a chance to know who's behind the brand, especially with people being more careful about where they're spending their money these days."

Schillaci said many businesses are using social media to cross-promote, having television ads direct consumers to their sites or having their Twitter feeds link to their blogs or Facebook pages. The latter two venues are not limited by Twitter's 140-character cutoff per tweet, but they also lack the immediacy associated with Twitter posts.

"It gives a human voice to the company. If PR issues arise, they can respond to it quickly," she said.

Businesses are advised to limit actual advertising and solicitation on social media sites to 20 percent of the content, while the other 80 percent should be information such as links and studies that will attract readers, said Courtney Dunevant, vice president of Bonnie Heneson Communications in Columbia.

She urged businesses to become resources for their audiences and post not just to their own accounts but also comment on other sites on relevant topics.

While retailers and brand-name companies are currently wielding the most successful social media campaigns, Dunevant said, the commercial real estate industry is also exploiting them.

Some companies post monthly photo spreads of their projects on Flickr and video diaries with project workers on YouTube. Prospective customers can review these archives to get an idea of what the business is like on the job.

"Transparency always builds trust," she said, while also recommending that businesses address public concerns online where others can see them.

Armstrong also emphasized seeking out sites visited by critics and others who influence consumers.

"You need to refine your focus on how to use these tools," he said. "Are you just trying to ring the cash register or are you trying to build relationships with your audience?"

This question is important, as nobody has devised a way to quantify the relationship between interactive marketing and direct sales, social media supporters say.

$716M spent this year

U.S. businesses are expected to spend a total of almost $55 billion in interactive marketing by 2014, making up 21 percent of their marketing budgets, according to a survey by Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass. More than $716 million will be spent on social media this year.

Susan Goodell, senior director of Baltimore marketing company Warschawski, said more conventional media outlets such as newspapers and magazines have been facing some serious challenges lately, causing more advertisers to seek alternatives.

But she cautioned that social media is just one marketing tool and should be part of a company's integrated marketing campaign, warning against businesses hiring young workers just for the sake of managing social media sites.

Facebook reports more than 250 million active users, with the average user between 35 and 50 years old. Twitter had more than 9.3 million users as of April, according to comScore Inc., which studies digital marketing. ComScore also reported more than 100 million viewers for YouTube as of March.

Goodell also emphasized that businesses pay attention to how many actual users they are reaching and keep in mind the constantly shifting interests of their customer base.

Twitter, the fastest growing among the social media outlets, has only a 40 percent retention rate, with 60 percent dropping the site a month after joining, according to a Nielsen Online study in April.

Most businesses agree that the largest cost when using social media is time. Recommendations for how much time to put into creating and tracking social media range from two to four hours per week, with the universal understanding that time investment depends on numerous factors, including what businesses want out of their social media.

Sarah Straw, marketing director for the Maryland Ensemble Theatre in Frederick, spends about six hours managing the theater's online accounts each week.

"It's just so they know you're there. Hopefully, it'll turn into ticket sales, but you just want to get into the community," she said. "It's better than when you just put an ad on the radio. Then you're just projecting a message out there, with no feedback."

Straw also said print advertising has become less effective, as so many people look online for news and other information.

Businesses in the Bethesda area have launched Twitter feeds in the past year, including hotels, real estate agents, boutiques and restaurants.

Bryan Oringher, assistant general manager of the Bethesda Big Train baseball team, said the team uses the site to draw new people to its games.

"Anything we can do to get people to a ballpark on a Thursday is huge for us," Orlinger said. "So if that means starting Twitter Thursdays, and offering $2 off tickets for people who mention Twitter at the gate, so be it."

Chambers of commerce and industry groups are also pushing social media among their members, hosting seminars on how to use the tools with speakers such as Armstrong.

"It's more of a spam-fighting tool. Only those who are actively interested get the message," said Larry O. Collins, executive director of the Howard Technology Council. "It's more of a pull than a push approach."

The Baltimore-Washington Corridor Chamber of Commerce is also sticking its toe in the social media waters, having offered two programs on the topic.

"We're not sure how it will all sort out. Some people are becoming numb to the information overload. But you use whatever mechanism you can use to get connected to someone else," said H. Walter Townshend III, president and CEO of the chamber.

Do's and don'ts for social marketing

DO:

Create a business voice separate from your personal voice.

Stay consistent with voice and updates.

Keep a positive tone, even if responding to something negative.

Be relevant. Make yourself an authority and follow your audience.

DON'T:

Forget that everything has the potential to go further than you expect. Small problems can become big ones if not addressed quickly.

Chase technology for technology's sake. Determine why you want to use the technology.

Ghost-write. Either create your own content or let your audience know who is creating it.

Focus on just your customers — also focus on influencers who can reach your market.

Source: Mario Armstrong

Staff Writer Bradford Pearson contributed to this report.