Are you a social media leader, or just a follower?  This is an interesting question brought up by Examiner.com and commonly asked by many other social media gurus.  The question comes down to what you want to accomplish through social media.  Is it simply just a networking tool for you, or are you looking to establish yourself as a thought leader in your industry and gain more business?

Social Media followers are simply those people who flood Twitter with retweets and spend their quality time on Facebook adding friends in hopes to gain customers through this technique.  The difference between these social media followers and the leaders is they are always looking for the next trend they think will help market their business.  The truth is, they are simply “following” the media in what they think is the marketing trend that works.

Sure social media is all about gaining exposure, but in order to drive value to your business you have to gain exposure through search engines as well.  Social media leaders utilize social media networks by incorporating industry participation with link building to increase search rankings and promote their brand even further.  They present new ideas, educate the followers, and don’t always go with the popular vote.  Leaders often make use of authoritative social networks such as LinkedIn, Squidoo, SlideShare, HubPages, and blogs who allow followed backlinks in blog posting, articles, videos, and other quality content.  Social media leaders take that extra step to benefit their online business by utilizing the convergence of social media marketing with search engine optimization.