Website such as Twitter and Facebook have caught fire in the past few years. I still remember when I joined Twitter only 2 years ago. In those days, a lot of top marketers were talking about how Twitter was a fad and was not going to go anywhere. Some even called the idea stupid and pointless. I was somewhat in the middle at that point. We were not realizing too much value from Twitter in those days, but at the same time, the community’s growth was giving us hope that at some point we may be able to monetize our efforts.

These days, there are no more doubts that social media is here to stay. Whether it’s Facebook or Twitter doesn’t really matter in the end. But the channel is going to be there for anyone who is brave enough to take a chance and invest in it. Keeping up with the social media may be more daunting that traditional media, but that’s a huge leveler, especially for small businesses. 2010 is going to be the year that social media networks finally start monetizing their work, and that could lead to more sophisticated advertising platforms and more solid communities.

Facebook already has Facebook ads, something that all marketers need to take advantage of to push their offers and promote their Facebook and external pages. There are plenty of other places that you can advertise your business as well. But here are a few steps online marketers need to take to push their businesses to new heights:

• Strategy: in order to get the most out of the social media, you need to have a real plan. Some marketers like to think of advertising as a separate channel. But there are synergies that your business can realize if your online marketing strategies are inter-connected and aligned.
• Networks: identify social networks that your audience hangs out in and try to reach out to them with ads and messages.
• Ad services: Stumbleupon, LinkedIn, and Facebook all allow you to promote your business in front of their communities. You can use third party services to get the job done on Twitter.
• Up and comers: the good thing about social networking websites is the fact that new ones pop out of nowhere by the day. Not all of them are going to matter to your business, but you should spend time to identify those that do matter to your business and are in your niche.
• Life beyond Adwords: Google Adwords and Microsoft Adcenter are still top services that you need to push your sites through. At the same time, there is life behind Adwords, and the sooner you realize that, the better off your business will be. Display media, social media advertising, and other channels can always help you balance your CPA and increase your profits. Never be afraid to test all the tools and services that are out there. It never hurts.

If you thought 2009 was the year of social media, think again. 2010 is going to be more exciting and more competitive for all those involved in this channel. The sooner you get involved, the better.