I had planned to write about selling tangible products today. However, I wanted to discuss on something more popular these days - social media.

This topic has been hitting many blogs recently. Popular sites such as Doshdosh.com, Problogger.net and Caroline-Middlebrook.com have all been talked about how social network and social bookmarking sites and tools such as Twitter.com, Facebook.com, StumbleUpon.com. Blogcatalog.com or social aggregators such as Friendfeed.com

Now, the question is: Is there money to be made on all these social sites? If yes, how can we sell online though these sites?

Social media was never created to be an online sales tool. It was intended to connect people with a common interest. Social bookmarking sites allowed users to share bookmarks with their friends, while social networking tools lets people connect with their friends’ friends. Real time networking tools such as Twitter are also known as micro-blogging - people share links to interesting stuff they read online.

Today, social media sites are also used to make money online, although indirectly. Here are some ideas on how you can also capitalize on social media for profits:

1. Build a pool of customers

Your customer database is your asset. Social media can be used to build a pool of followers, who are interested in your products, probably now or later. Of course, people are following you for a reason. For this, you need to ensure that your blog or website is providing relevant information to your potential customers.

2. Share ideas, receive input for new ideas

It’s a fact that we consistently need to improve ourselves. This includes our products and services and interacting with our customers lets us know what we need to change. Once a product or service has been improved, you can then promote the improved product to your social media group.

3. Link exchanges

There is just so much you can do with a pool of followers. You can ask for links back to your website, in exchange for a link on yours. You can even ask them to follow you on Twitter. Take this a step further, you can offer something for free, in exchange for a link.

4. An alternative to mass emailing

Mass email marketing has been something that been in use for a fairly long time. The problem with this is we receive so much mass email that many of such email are left unread. However, people who actually join a social media group are interesting in what that group has to offer. For instance, Twitter followers would probably be more attentive than passive email recipients.

5. Generate traffic to your website or blog

Another reason why people subscribe to social media is to generate traffic to their website. Thus, you’ll be able to announce each new post on your blog, each new product you launch, to your social media group.

6. Business connection resource

If there’s one thing internet marketers do, it’s their ability to collaborate with other internet marketers to sell something. This way, you will then able to leverage on other people’s networks or databases, without utilizing too much effort to build your own.

Now, the next question now is: How do you start building your social network?

There are many bloggers out there with an innate focus on social media. A bulk of their posts is focused on this topic, and I must admit that their content is pretty interesting and informational.

In Increasing your Twitter Presence, Darren Rowse gives his readers 5 practical ways to increase Twitter followers.

Then, Maki responds to Darren with Increase Twitter Followers. An interesting point he points out is that many Twitter users with a large follower base were already popular in the first place. He also stresses the importance of boosting web traffic to your Twitter profile, and what we can do to make it more prominent.

Finally, this post received 58 Sphinns - How to Increase Your Twitter Following 438% in 30 Days. I must say that the steps here look pretty common sense to me. Perhaps the biggest value I got here was the importance of consistent communication when using Twitter - the reason why Twitter existed in the first place.

Of course, if you want to start from scratch, you may want to check out Caroline Middlebrook’s Twitter Guide.