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Online advertising represents today’s best opportunity to reach carefully-segmented audiences with your brand’s own direct messaging, undiluted by pundits, bloggers, or journalists. Unlike traditional forms of advertising on television, radio, billboards, or in print publications, which blankets wide swaths of the population with the hopes of reaching those who might purchase a particular product or service, online marketing allows advertisers to specifically target precise demographic and interest groups and pay only for those consumers who click over to a brand’s Web content.

Online advertising continues to grow at a rate of 10% each year – which is saying a lot, considering that it is generally less expensive than purchasing a magazine ad or billboard.

In the wake of last week’s launch of Twitter’s advertising platform, this week’s Six@Six highlights six of the most useful platforms for online advertising – each with its own unique features, capabilities, and audience. Where is your company advertising online? Share @pjkerley.

1. Twitter Promoted Tweets

After months of speculation, Twitter announced last week the details of its advertising platform, Twitter Promoted Tweets. With 50 million Tweets sent out each day to a vast and diverse audience, it was only a matter of time until the site opened up for advertisers. While the new advertising platform is not yet open to everyone, Twitter is focusing attention on the “organic” nature of Promoted Tweets. Promoted tweets are set to appear at the top of relevant search results, but users will be able to re-tweet, bookmark, or “favorite” the message, just like any other tweet. This interaction – which can indicate the level of relevance and popularity of an ad – will play a significant role in how long an ad continues to appear in search results. Because promoted tweets are designed for greater user engagement than other ad platforms – and because Twitter users have come to expect companies to connect with them in an ongoing discussion – advertisers on this platform must adapt accordingly. Simply rehashing ads from elsewhere will not suffice; ads must expand upon the already-existing dialogue taking place on Twitter.

2. Google AdWords

Google AdWords is the most recognizable and well-known of all advertising platforms – and for good reason. Search engine marketing (SEM) represents one of the fastest-growing areas of advertising, both online and off, thanks to its unparalleled ability to target consumers at the precise moment they are most interested in finding more information about a product or service. With 76% of the search advertising market share, Google makes it easy to target Internet users based on the search queries they enter. For example, if a tennis racquet retailer wants to boost its sales, it can bid to purchase “Sponsored Links” that appear on Google anytime an individual searches for terms such as “tennis racquets.” In addition, Adwords (and similar platforms) also provide opportunities to target based on location and maintain full control of the budget (both per-click bids and daily budget totals).

3. Google Content Network

While search-based marketing may be the fastest-growing online advertising platform, Google’s ad revenue isn’t derived solely from AdWords. Google has developed agreements with sites across the Web that enable advertisers to easily place ads in front of audiences with a wide range of interests. Google’s Content Network – which reaches 80% of global Internet users – is the world’s largest ad network. In essence, the Google Content Network allows advertisers to use a single portal to purchase and manage text, display, or video ads that are targeted based on the location of the user; key terms in a particular article; or even simply by online media outlet. Many of the highest-authority and most-visited websites, including many associated with major offline publications, are a part of the Content Network as well.

4. Facebook Advertising

With more than 400 million global users, Facebook represents a massive pool of savvy Web users. These users tend to be heavily engaged on the site, with 50% logging in on any given day, 35 million updating their status every day, and all 400 million users spending a daily average of 55 minutes on the site. And unlike many other advertising services, Facebook already has a plethora of information about each user – their likes, interests, hometown, education, marital status, and much more. Facebook Advertising makes it easy to target specific audiences based on any of the demographic information collected by Facebook – including likes, interests, and group memberships – as part of an individual’s profile. Clicks generated through Facebook advertising are often relatively inexpensive – and they can be most effective in driving interest, awareness, or traffic to other social media content.

5. LinkedIn Direct Ads

Dubbed the “Professional Social Networking Site,” LinkedIn’s 65 million members include professionals from all types of industries and levels of seniority. Like Facebook, LinkedIn maintains data on each individual, focusing on career-oriented details and demographic information. As a result, LinkedIn’s Direct Ad capabilities allow advertisers to target audiences by criteria such as company size, job function, industry, position, and geography, among other more common demographics. LinkedIn ads are text-based with a corresponding logo, and they appear on the side of the page as users matching the advertiser’s criteria peruse the site. Because each ad is connected with either an individual or a company’s LinkedIn profile, ads convey legitimacy and provide a second opportunity (in addition to the URL of the ad itself) for users to find out more about the company, product, or service without leaving LinkedIn.com.

6. Mobile Advertising

Smart phones and other mobile devices, with a 19% penetration rate in the United States (there are currently 45 million active smart phones across the country), are quickly becoming critical tools for accessing the Web. Mobile is the new frontier in online advertsing. In recent months, both established and emerging advertisers, such as Google with AdMob and Apple's iAd platform, have made strong pushes into mobile advertising. While still a relatively new phenomenon, mobile advertising provides the potential for micro-targeting just as deeply as social media and search-based advertising. But rather than appearing only in the corner of a website or search results page, smart phone advertising can be displayed within third-party mobile apps or as an integrated part of mobile websites.

In a rapidly-evolving advertising environment, adapting to changes in consumer habits is absolutely essential to influencing buying decisions and building a strong base of brand support. Today, that means making online advertising a marquee element of any effective marketing campaign.

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Patrick Kerley is a Senior Digital Strategist at Levick Strategic Communications, the world’s top crisis firm. He is also a contributing author to Bulletproof Blog™ and is on Twitter @pjkerley.