The growing world of social media is both powerful and intimidating, and if using it for social media advertising, done wrong it can be an absolute disaster. Getting the most out of social media advertising is about knowing who your target audience is, and how to get them to engage with your product or service.

Let's not forget that social media done badly can be worse than social media not done at all and with so many companies now trying to include social media in online marketing campaigns, it is vital to get it right. Social media advertising can be a time consuming process and involves lots of monitoring if you want to be sure you are getting a good return on investment.

Many online marketing agencies now carry out social media advertising campaigns for clients, due to the amount of time needed to study and plan results and strategies. There are various ways to go about social media advertising. Take Facebook for instance, any company can create a profile or group for free, offering information about the latest products and services to members or 'friends' of that group or profile.

MySpace is another social media site that is great for creating profiles and spreading news of promotions or offers by word of mouth. Many companies can set up social media profiles and create networks of followers and friends in order to promote services and products. Knowing how social media sites work will also help when carrying out social media advertising strategies.

Your advertisements must also be the kind of thing that is going to attract those they are aimed at. This may seem like an obvious thing to say but sometimes it is difficult to get into the mind of someone else, especially if your product/service is aimed at a different age group, sex, religion, culture etc. It is surprisingly common how adverts can go to waste simply down to the fact they are not attracting the right kinds of people and not sending out the right message in the right places.

Competition for social media advertising is rife so it is worthwhile spending some time and investing resources into getting your social media advertising strategy just right. Having a good social networking presence can have serious benefits for your company, but getting it wrong could be a completely different story.