So, by now most of us either know about or have played with social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. What do most of these sites have in common? They have activity streams. An activity stream could contain just about anything. A whole stream could be devoted to individuals swapping images back and forth or, most commonly, a stream will consist of “instant message” style chatting where one person will post something on your profile and then you comment back or post something on their profile. You can see this flawlessly in action on Facebook.

Facebook allows you to sort your streams by news, pages, status updates, photos and links. Twitter, is one massive activity stream, that’s all there is, but that’s why it’s so effective. A simple design in a “fast forward” world allows people to communicate to one another easier and faster than ever before. You can download plugins for your Firefox to pop-up Twitter messages just like when you receive a new email through Outlook.

Activity streams are making their way into the workplace. Businesses are using them to communicate internally and there’s a chance that in the future company executives will be more accessible than ever as customers may be able to communicate with higher-ups directly through the companies website.

Social media continues to grow and expand like never before. Google has taken a shot at the market by developing Google Wave which essentially is a way for people to interact with one another on the fly. If you and a friend are typing message to each other you’ll be able to see what they’re typing as their doing it.

Internet technology is getting more advanced and expect these systems and features to play a major role in your marketing efforts down the road.

What started as an obscure micro-blogging website that people used to just detail things going on their daily lives has caught fire and hit the mainstream. Nowadays, you’ll hear the word Twitter uttered multiple times per day, whether on the radio, on the local news as a tool to gather answers from their listeners, or even (in Amazon’s case) cause me to spend too much money on fantastic deals via Twitter-only coupon codes.

I should really stop following Amazon’s Twitter.

(and if you’re looking for more details about how Twitter works, then check out one of my earlier posts)

Regardless, this post is about you and whether Twitter can help your business. What can you do to test the waters?

My first recommendation is checking out Twitter’s really powerful search functionality. Put in a word or two and you’ll find real-time “tweets” that include your keyword. Check out the traffic behind keywords that describe your business. If you’re seeing a lot of questions, or pleas for help, then don’t hesitate; sign up and provide those looking for answers with knowledge and they may follow you or check out your website.

And really the best advice is to jump in feet first. Sign up and tweet regularly - but not too often. You can look like a spam account or just bug potential followers with the amount of noise you put out. “Tweet” regularly, search for potential opportunities to promote your business, and if the number of people following you steadily increases, then it’s well worth your time.

And if it turns out to not be worth your time, at least you gave the latest and greatest social media phenomenon a try. And probably bought some awesome gadgets on sale from Amazon in the process.

It can sometimes be hard to be personal on a website. Your main goal is to sell products anyway, so what’s the point of interacting with a customer and providing a human face to match the strings of code driving the website?

Giving your company a little personality can start to build trust which is essential for a potential visitor. And if you utilize some of social media’s easy to use, free gathering places, you may even start driving extra traffic to your website!

The most recent hotspot on the Internet is Facebook. Initially just for college students, they’ve expanded to accept everyone regardless of academic status and provide quite a few avenues for networking purposes. Think of it as a more mature MySpace (which is becoming less and less relevant, especially for businesses). If you’re focused on selling in a higher age bracket than teenagers, Facebook is the way to go.

Twitter is the up-and-coming website that is starting to hit mainstream status. It limits the message you can post to 140 characters, so you can easily and quickly give potential customers updates on your products, offer Twitter-only coupons, or even ask for feedback. Companies have gotten pretty creative in how they use Twitter; you can generate buzz with an offbeat idea that catches fire throughout the blogosphere.

And that’s what social media is all about - providing people with a community area to engage in discussion. If somebody can ask you a question on Twitter and get a response, they know that you’re around, that you care about your company, and they may be that much more encouraged to purchase from you.