Social media has transformed the entire landscape of the web—not only how people produce and consume information, but also how businesses must engage and take care of their customers. If you want to be truly successful with online marketing, there are some rules of the new media environment that you need to learn and follow. These are the new rules for business success online.

You Have to Be Genuine

You’ve gotta be real. You can’t be the pushy car salesman. You actually have to demonstrate that you care. A lot of traditional marketing is overly pushy and sales-oriented, and these days, consumers are getting more and more effective at blocking out advertising entirely. When you get an unsolicited marketing newsletter or a spam message in your email inbox, do you read it? Or do you trash it immediately? Same rule applies to your potential customers. They’re smart, and they don’t want to be pitched to. Consumers trust the recommendations of their peers, and they trust companies who go out of their way to demonstrate that they care and provide helpful, relevant advice in the right context.

When you go to a traditional networking event, a lot of people are there to exchange as many business cards as possible. It’s a numbers game. They put on a face and will often do anything they can to get a sale, because everyone is desperate for business right now in this economy. I’ve had many business folks approach me to basically say “If you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Link exchanges, writing fallacious endorsements to puff up one anothers’ profiles, and so on. But that’s not genuine. If you really want to get people talking about your business, you need to provide real services to them and seek out real, valuable testimonials.

Getting on the blogosphere or social media to promote yourself or your business also means you need to learn to be comfortable with a certain level of transparency that didn’t used to exist. Establishing yourself as an expert of any sort means you’re putting your name and your face out there. People will have your contact information—and while this is great when potential clients want to get in touch, you need to think consciously about how you make that information available online and how you will protect yourself from malicious people on the internet. You also should be transparent about your level of expertise and your abilities. Gone are the days where you need to pretend to be some guru—it’s actually alright to admit that you have a lot of learning and growing to do—everyone does and always will. But simply by the fact that you specialize in one thing and have any amount of experience to share—if you are knowledgeable enough to provide guidance for others then you’re providing value.

You Need to Have Personality

If you choose to showcase your company online with a blog, social networking profiles, or especially with video and other multimedia, you need to find the right people to lead your social media marketing. In many cases the CEO or founder might be someone who’s passionate and knowledgeable enough to be the “face” of your company online. But if not, you must seek out your team members that are truly passionate about your business and knowledgeable about your industry. People that are enthusiastic and sometimes a little quirky will often be the best cheerleaders for your brand online. Just look at Gary Vaynerchuk . His energy and unique approach to a centuries-old trade made his parents’ wine business a huge success online with Wine Library TV.

You should be authentic with your online presence. Don’t fabricate a fake online identity, but instead seek out those people that can bring the right energy to your blog or online profiles. Let them use their real names and express their real personalities. Give them freedom to make appropriate decisions on their own and experiment with different tactics online. If you don’t already have the right people on your staff who can relate well with others, write well, network and promote your business with passion, then seek out the people that are talking positively about you. Who are your biggest supporters and your raving fans ?

You Must Be Helpful

Lastly, and most importantly, you have to provide a stellar product or service. First of all, make sure you’ve identified a problem and solve it. If you’re not solving people’s problems in some way or another and doing it well, you won’t keep people’s attention for very long. Then you need to make sure you provide great service. In the age of social media, business now operates on Small Town Rules again, and if you go the extra mile and look out for your customers, you will build a solid reputation quite quickly. Adversely, if you ignore customer complaints or provide crummy support when your clients have trouble, you never how much business you might lose when they tell their friends and peers about their negative experiences. As one commenter said in a recent article , “Your customers not only have buying power, but cheerleader power now more than ever.”

The best way to bring new people into your community is to establish credibility and leadership in your industry with a blog and social media presence . Provide as much free help and advice as you can on your blog, on Twitter, and elsewhere, and encourage your team and your readers to share and contribute freely. A community where people can learn and grow along with you quickly builds a lot more trust than a business that simply wants to sell people a product.

Cody is a nomadic entrepreneur & lifestyle designer who helps social changemakers & other remarkable people spread their message on the web.

Tags: authenticity, blogosphere, consumers, credibility, customer service, customers, enthusiasm, Gary Vaynerchuk, genuine, information, networking, online presence, passion, personality, raving fans, small town rules, Social Media, testimonials, transparency