Can using blogs, short videos, tweets and status updates help us market our core products, or do they just get in the way of our message?Â
Tweeting, blogging and updating status can drive traffic to your site. And more traffic usually means more income or at least it increases your chances of getting higher income.
As long as you keep it clean on the social sites then it will be nice but a lot of people do it wrong and it then just looks like spam
yes dude when you share your little information among people, they can interact with it. micro bogging is getting much popularity  via twitter. thus in same fashion people  using micro blogging in more social networking sites. and it is good to share little information among people and thus involve them in your discussion.Â
For me it does in somewhat ways. But for me classified ads/ business listing is one of the best way to market your product and then share it to different social networking sites.
I would rely on social networking and video for marketing core products. Don't recommend twitter since I think it is best suited for high class person like Celebrities and Politicians.
Some marketing strategies don't work in every website niche.. And you've mentioned you have core products, then Facebook marketing, Videos, and blogging are some options that you may try
Yeah the worst thing that you can do if you start social marketing is sound like a "business", people are in 2.0 sites to have fun, not to do business.
both of them are useful, if you do it well, any of them will help you to achieve aims. as for me, i think videos and facebooks can bring great many traffics.