As she explains, many companies go after the famous people online. Although these people do have a lot of influence, they are probably not the best option for your business. On the other hand, companies should be looking for the people that already care about their brand and are passionate about it. These are the people that will provide the most powerful influence.

Once a business finds these influencers, it then needs to find ways to bring them together. Not only does this increase the exposure of the message, but it also helps to build a strong community.

Maltoni goes on to suggest that companies should know who their audience is and what it is doing. From this point, businesses need to determine methods for joining and engaging with the audience. Maltoni says it is much more effective for a company to join the existing community than to try to get the community to join the company.

In this interview, she also discusses how brands such as Dell, Apple, and Starbuck’s have used social and what they have done right and wrong. From these examples, she recommends that companies learn to be customer-centric.

Has your company found its influencers?

The first step is to, obviously, start a blog.  If the idea of starting a blog is overwhelming, a temporary blog might be a better option. Some people say that bloggers need to pick a niche and get a domain name from day one. Rowse, however, recommends that people start with a temporary format in order to adjust to the process, find a voice, and build an audience.

The second step is to get content on your blog. According to Rowse, this content should solve problems for people. In addition, it should be content that serves as a reference point in the future. Content is important because, once you start promoting your blog, you need to provide content that readers can easily find.

Thirdly, you need to attract readers. For this, you need to know whom you are trying to target. Rowse says that it’s not hard to get noticed online, but people do it in the wrong way. This could, ultimately, lead to attracting the wrong readers and taking yourself further away from your goals. To avoid this, he suggests that bloggers define their target market and determine where they can find them online.

To be successful at blogging, Rowse says that bloggers need to consider human needs, create content that is unique to their audience, and build something worthwhile.

Are you applying these words of wisdom to your blog?

Although technology plays a big role in a business, users often have difficulty knowing what to do with it. Because the Cheezburger Network didn’t have the resources to invest in technological advances, Huh says it concentrated on the community’s needs.

“For us, technology was a tool,” points out Huh.

He advises other businesses to adopt this same focus since it not only allows for growth, but it also provides businesses with the ability to do bigger and better things.

There are currently 52 sites in the Cheezburger Network and it is continuing to add properties. Huh calls the sites “playgrounds” that users can play on. Although the sustainability of these “playgrounds” is not certain, he says the network is the largest human destination on the Web and it will find ways to maintain that status.

Huh credits the success of his company to the acceptance of the Internet culture. He believes this culture is in the very early stages but says it is gaining momentum.

To learn more about the company and its hilarious content, check out the latest book, “I Has a Hotdog: What Your Dog Is Really Thinking.”

According to Patrick O’Keefe, the Founder of the iFroggy Network, “self-promotion done wrong is spam.” This type of self-promotion occurs when users do the opposite of what the community wants them to do. Unfortunately, this spam takes place all across the Web on forums, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and more.

Since respectable businesses obviously do not want to spam, how can they practice effective self-promotion? O’Keefe gives two helpful tips for doing it right. First of all, he suggests looking for people who are already doing it right and following their example.

Secondly, he recommends abiding by the guidelines of the community. These guidelines or terms of service will let users know what is allowed and what isn’t allowed. If users follow these rules, they will gain respect from the community.

Self-promotion is, however, challenging since users do not want to come across as arrogant or cocky. To avoid this, O’Keefe advises users to tell their experience and then let the community determine its own perception. Users can say that they wrote a book without saying that they wrote the greatest book of all time.

He says, “It’s never for me to say whether or not I’m good; it’s always for someone else to say whether or not I’m good.”

In the end, shameless self-promotion is possible, if it is done right.