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Your President is using social media. The US Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia is using Facebook. If you're not using social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube to grow your business, the only question you should be asking yourself is "how can I get started"! We all know the government isn't usually the first to jump on useful new technologies, so if they're on the bandwagon now, then social media is officially here to stay.

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The last time President Obama visited Africa, he took questions online from Africans. He got an amazing 17,000 responses online.

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The US Embassy in Indonesia recently grew its number of Facebook Fans from 36,000 to 120,000 in one month. Yes, that's right, I said one month!

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These are just illustrations of the power of social media in growing a following, customer list, fan base, or support online for your business or cause... whether it's on offline business or an online business. Many people think social media tools are only for kids, or that they are only for offline businesses. Well, that was true about three years ago, but not anymore. Facebook, for example, has now launched a Page function that is totally retooled for small business to make it as easy as possible to connect with customers. (This feature used to be called Fan Pages, now it's just called Pages.)

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To find this wonderful tool in Facebook, just click on the Facebook logo in the upper left, and then click "Ads and Pages", then click "Create a Page". This will guide you through a fast questionnaire about your business and then you'll be up and running. Now you'll want to promote your Page using posts from your personal profile, filling up the Wall and Discussion of your Page with great content, and inviting the Admins and members of Facebook Groups in your industry to join. If you want to you can also run Facebook Ads (which are similar to Google AdWords ads, but generally less expensive) right on Facebook!

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And did you know that each Tweet on Twitter is now indexed by Google as its own page on the Internet? That means that whatever you Tweet can be found by people (prospects and customers!) that are searching for those keywords on the Internet. So get busy Facebook-ing and Tweeting about your business and industry, and you'll attract prospects to you using the power of the searchable Internet.

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If you are new to Facebook it might seem a bit daunting and overwhelming. The truth is that, just like with everything, if you give it some time and allow yourself to just try things, you will pick up the system faster than you would have thought at the beginning.

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If you have already logged in you will have a profile page. Upload some photos, especially a profile photo so people will recognize you, add some of your personal details and start adding friends.

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In order to find out what other people are posting and to use this site to it's purpose, which is to network with friends, family and colleagues you need to add friends. This is easily done: If you see someone you know on one of your friend's pages, simply click on the button 'add as a friend'. There is also an area called 'People You May Know' where you will find people that you might know.

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Another good way is to let Facebook check which people in your address book are already using Facebook, which you can then link to.