WHILE SOME BUSINESS owners can count on serving their customers for life, Albert DiPadova, co-founder of Due Maternity, a chain of five maternity clothing stores based in San Francisco, can only rely on his customers — expecting mothers — for just nine months.

Having a constantly revolving customer base means DiPadaova is always searching for ways to keep his current moms-to-be happy while trying to attract newly-pregnant women to his stores at the same time. But instead of relying on traditional print or television ads, he decided to build out the company's web site with a series of free online tools. Last year he started adding a series of features — an online forum, a gift registry, a downloadable birth-date countdown clock, an astrology guide and a database of 1,600 baby names — all designed to make users feel like they're part of a community and, in turn, incite them to spend. DiPadova even built a separate site called Look Who's Prego that allows expecting mothers to create caricatures of what they'll look like when they start showing.

“These tools allow our customers to become our advocates,” says DiPadova who boasts that his site’s online community grows by 1,000 new moms each week.

As DiPadova discovered, small-business owners can reap big rewards by adding social media tools to their arsenal. Consumers are increasingly expecting forums, blogs, videos and podcasts whether they're shopping online or researching health subjects. The potential audience is huge. In October, for example, web surfers in the U.S. viewed 13.5 billion online videos — a 45% jump from the same time a year ago, according to recent data from media research firm ComScore.

That's an opportunity that shouldn't be missed. Here’s how to devise a social media strategy for your business:

Find a focus

Identify the goals you hope to achieve. If you want to boost sales or get more feedback from customers, your social media strategy will look different than one designed for a firm that’s looking to hire. “You can use social strategies to achieve a broad spectrum of initiatives,” says Mikolaj Jan Piskorski, an assistant professor of business administration at the Harvard Business School.

Establish a web presence

If you don’t already have a web site or a blog, get one, says John Jantsch, a Kansas City, Mo.-based marketing and digital technology consultant. (Click here for our story about setting up a web site.) Also, create profiles on sites like Facebook, Bebo or MySpace and make sure your business is listed accurately on search directories such as Google Maps, Yelp and Yahoo! Local, says Andy Boyer, a principal at Spring Creek Group, a boutique interactive marketing agency in Seattle. (Click here and here to read more about social networking and online search directories, respectively.)

Create relevant content

“Give people the opportunity to converse about something that is of interest to them,” says Karen L. Webster, president of Market Platform Dynamics, a management consulting firm in Cambridge, Mass. And don’t forget to factor in your target audience’s age and geographic location. For DiPadova, at Due Maternity, that meant creating content and tools centered around the latest Halloween costumes for pregnant women and celebrity baby news.

Become an expert

Become an indispensable source of information, says Boyer. “Having a clever web site won’t cut it if your content isn’t interesting and engaging,” he says. Even though it seems obvious, read as much as possible about your chosen subject area, suggests Jantsch. For content ideas, bookmark publications or blogs that share your focus. Sign up for Google Alerts or Bloglines to have industry news delivered straight to you. Also, consider tracking others who write about the same subjects on networks like Twitter, a free social messaging tool. Once you feel appropriately well-versed, start marketing yourself as an expert resource for those targeted writers and publications.

Pick a medium

Whether it’s through traditional media, blogs, podcasts or videos, think about the methods your customers use to receive information. A 2006 report from Nielsen//NetRatings, an Internet media research firm, found that Internet users aged 18 to 24 are nearly twice as likely to download podcasts as the average web user. By contrast, the most active video viewers trended a little older, with 25 to 34 year olds. Web users above the age of 45 were less likely than average to view podcasts or videos.

Share your message

Your company's web site should be the hub of its social media strategy. Invite customers to view free content, join online communities and comment on products. Additionally, consider posting your site’s free content or tools to web channels such as Flickr, Twitter and YouTube. “You’re trying to build a community,” says Jantsch. “You’re [also] opening up access points to people who you may not have had access to before.”

Other recent Starting Up columns:

• Starting Up: Tech Cos Offer Range of Financing Deals
• Starting Up: Lessening the Blow of Bankruptcy

("Starting Up," a weekly column written by Diana Ransom for smSmallBiz.com, follows entrepreneurs through the early stages of launching a business. Write to her at dransom@smartmoney.com.)