Figure out if you can promote your business using coupons, rebates or contests. Social media outlets like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook have also become inexpensive ways of getting the word out on your business. Other methods like TV or radio commercials, magazine ads and mailers can be a good idea.

Knowing where and when to market is important. You must plan and ask yourself: Does the medium suit the brand? Is the ad running where the target market will see/hear it? Is the mail/email targeted to interested prospects? Is it running often enough for the message to sink in? Can you afford to run it often enough for the necessary exposure?

Planning will take some time, but once you have an idea about what you need to do to market your specific business, you’ll be in a better position to reach your target market and start raking in the dough. Especially if you’re in the catering or landscaping business.

There’s a lot of pressure out there to blog, to Twitter for business, to at least have a Linkedin profile for goodness sakes! And it’s true, you can’t “sit this one out” and “see where it goes.” Oh, it’s going. Our social lives and our business marketing will never be the same. Your business must participate in the online social sphere.  I’m just one more peer here to say, go on, try it.

It’s a curious feeling, even just posting photos that anyone could see, never mind a status update. So start slow. One site at a time, one profile at a time. Linkedin is an excellent place to begin, since it’s business oriented. When you’re ready to advance to the next level of posting videos on YouTube or setting up a Facebook page for your business, think of it as just that: for your business. It’s true, there’s blurring between the personal and the professional lines, you will be out there with your business – but take comfort in the fact that so is everyone else. That’s right, everyone is doing it.

As you get more comfortable, you’ll enjoy networking online because you’ll be finding old friends and new contacts. Your website will attract more traffic from the additional visibility. It will be worth it. And then there will come a day when you post on a blog and it gets some seriously snarky responses. And you’ll cringe and wish you had never set foot in cyberspace. But so what? It’s just people’s opinions and it will pass. And as they say, all publicity is good publicity. Just stay true to yourself, on message with your company, and keep making connections – online.

Just like the Internet itself, social media is here to stay. However, as with clubs or hairstyles, what networking sites are the “in” sites will likely always change. Social networking and sharing online will be a constant, just a continuously evolving one. And since consumers are spending time online, business are adapting and hanging out virtually as well. But what’s the right amount?

According to The Small Business Advocate blog, small business owners can easily get sucked into spending too much time socializing online, leading them to neglect “tried and true” traditional marketing efforts that are, in fact, working. While it’s definitely possible that online networks can lead to new clients, one may not see immediate gains, or any at all if it just doesn’t work for your business. Therein lies the secret, except that the secret formula for the ratio of social media to traditional marketing is going to be different for every business.

As for the scientists’ warning that the overwhelming speed and volume of tweets “could harm [one's] moral compass”… I’m not sure I want to think about that just yet. We’re all experimenting, and businesses (and people) have to figure out what works for them. But you’ve been warned.