Mention social media marketing and most people think of Facebook and Twitter. Sure, they are the biggest players on the Internet…or are they?

It’s true that Facebook and Twitter receive a lot of visitors each day, but that doesn’t make them the biggest players when it comes to social media marketing. There are some businesses that don’t seem to be able to make an impression on either of those sites, yet they find real success connecting with their audience on Pinterest or MySpace.

Where is your target audience online?

Social media sites are not all the same. Each site draws a different group of people for different reasons. With over 900 million users, Facebook has the widest appeal when it comes to demographics; however, each group has a different agenda when logging in. “Millenials” tend to want to upload photos, banter with their friends, and organize party dates – they really are social. Parents will log in to check on their children, compare notes with friends, ask questions, then log out again.  While that’s a bit of a generalization, it’s clear that everyone uses social media just a bit differently.

“If you look at the latest fad in social media, it’s Pinterest,” shared Social Media Strategist Caroline Melberg. “By all accounts, Pinterest is driving more traffic than Facebook and Twitter combined for some niches. When it comes to Pinterest, the audience is 75%-80% female, generally mothers, and mostly interested in fashion, food, personal services and baby-related goods. If you deal in any of those niches, then you may well find that Pinterest is the best social media channel in which you should market.”

When considering a social media marketing campaign, you need to strategically segment the social media channels that are available. Analyze each one to see whether or not your audience (potential customers) is heavily involved, and if so, find out in what way. Just because the numbers are large, that doesn’t mean you are going to get a huge response. By carefully assessing each option, you can then plan a marketing campaign that doesn’t just deliver your message to the right audience, but one that delivers that message in a way that is acceptable to them in that channel.

“The days are long gone where you can just pump content through Facebook and Twitter,” said Melberg. “You now need to be smarter in how you approach social media – more importantly, smarter in how you assess your approach to each social media site.”

With over 850 million users, one might think that Facebook is a no-brainer from a business perspective.  The fact is, there are many businesses who have yet to embrace Facebook and other social media sites in a strategic manner.  I just spoke with a prospective customer last week who told me he “doesn’t quite know what to do with Facebook,” so he has chosen to do nothing.  (Yes, we can certainly help him!)

With Facebook heading toward it’s multi-billion dollar IPO, expected in May of this year, Social Media Strategist Caroline Melberg predicts that changes will happen that will force businesses to take a look at their social media participation – and soon.

“You need to look at Facebook’s potential revenue drivers with this IPO on the horizon,” says Melberg.  “Yes, they currently make money on advertising, but to date they are leaving the entire search advertising market (valued at $15 billion annually) on the table.  Have you ever tried to search for something on Facebook?  It’s terrible.  Facebook today ranks today with the lowest amount of search volume (behind Google, Yahoo, Bing, EBay, Craigslist, Ask, AOL and even Amazon).  That is going to change with new investors on board.”

While Google is moving into social with it’s Google+ product, Facebook will move into search by adding a stronger search component within it’s existing platform – one that 850 million users (and growing) already use regularly.

According to this article on Bloomberg Businessweek, “Greg Sterling, a senior analyst at Opus Research, says Facebook could quickly become the second-most popular search engine if it tackles the (search) problem in earnest.”

So – what does this mean for your business?  When Facebook improves it’s search functionality, suddenly your customers won’t have to leave Facebook to search for what they want to find.  If your business isn’t on Facebook…how will they find you when they do so?

Many business owners are asking themselves if they should be using Google+. Josh Lloyd, chief technology officer of ShopVisible, recently shared an article on Forbes.com with his recommendations of why businesses should use the tool.

Lloyd’s main points for his recommendation were, “Better social search rankings,” “It broadens your consumer appeal,” and “Potential to upsell, cross sell and just sell.”

There are actually a few other important pieces of information that must be included when deciding whether or not to use Google+…

First, it is necessary to distinguish the difference between Google +1 and Google +.

Google +1 is a button you can place on your website that will help you in search if people “+1″ you.

Google+ is a sharing site that allows you to interact with others, much like a social networking site but with the added benefit of using Google’s other shared products (mail, youTube, calendar, docs, etc.) with everyone in your network – much like cloud computing.

“Lloyd’s article is a bit confusing because he does what a lot of people do, and that is cross the streams between Google+ and Google +1,” shared Social Media Strategist Caroline Melberg.

In the article, Lloyd mentions, “Unlike the Facebook Like button, the +1 button is not limited to use within the confines of the social network, but rather it’s open to anyone searching on Google.”

“This statement is true – the +1 button shows up in search results and if people click on it, it will help you in search,” said Melberg. “However, what Lloyd doesn’t’ mention is that the Facebook ‘Like’ button can also be placed anywhere across the web – on any website or blog – so people can Like you from wherever they are…but not within the Google search results.”

Here’s the bottom line: yes, businesses should consider implementing both Google+ and Google +1 into their overall search and social media strategy, particularly if search engine optimization is one of their overall goals.

However, if word of mouth and reaching your audience is a more primary goal than SEO, then it may be too early to jump into Google+, (with 100 million users) as it is a community of early-adopters at this point (not necessarily where your potential customers are spending a lot of time yet).

It may make more sense for businesses interested in driving word of mouth to really maximize the potential of Facebook (with 850 million+ users) for their business before investing the time necessary to branch out to Google+ effectively and strategically.

Should small businesses add the Google +1 button to their website?  Absolutely, there is no reason to not do this as it can help with search engine optimization and is a low-time-commitment activity (adding the button to your site is not complex, but you may need your webmaster to help you).

However, if you are going to add the Google +1 button, then you should also consider integrating other social media connectivity (such as the Facebook “Like” button, Twitter “Follow” button, Pinterest “Follow” button) to your site as a part of your overall strategy. You may also need to look at the design of your site and determine where and how you will place these on your pages effectively for maximum usability.

The much-anticipated launch of Timeline for Brands is coming soon to a Facebook Page near you.  Last September, when Facebook launched its “Timeline” initiative for personal profiles, speculation began about when this change would be available for Facebook Pages as well.

During today’s Facebook Conference for Marketers, the company announced their plans for Timeline for Brands.

What do business owners need to do now to prepare for this switch?

One of the most obvious things that will happen is Pages will get a new look and feel.  They will adopt the over-sized graphic (known as the “Cover”) on the Wall with a small inset profile graphic intended for your company logo.

“While the obvious first instinct for this space will be a huge promotional message from brands, it’s important to remember that a strong sales push is not the way to go with social media,” says Social Media Strategist Caroline Melberg.  “It’s still about creating a relationship with your visitors and generating word of mouth – now companies have a larger space to tell our story in a branded way, and that’s a good thing.”

Pages are known as “Mission Control” in the Facebook world.  The “Cover” space on your page is designed to be the voice of your page, and your “visual status update.”  This sets the tone for your page, and is designed to be changed frequently.

Your posts will also have larger image areas attached to them, so each post will have the ability to generate increased engagement (as posts with photos attached get twice or more the engagement of plain text status updates, according to average figures from internal Facebook research studies).

Less obvious will be the way that companies will need to change how they manage and interact on their Facebook Pages with the launch of Timeline for Brands.

As it’s name suggests, “Timeline” gives companies the opportunity to tell your entire company history (compared with just the history of your company since Facebook came to be).  “This is in line with Facebook’s goal of encouraging engagement and interaction,” says Melberg.  “The more a company has the opportunity to tell their whole story, the more interaction can be fostered.”

Because of the increase in focus on interaction and engagement, “blast posts” to the masses on your Page will have even less positive effect than they do currently.  It will become more important to watch your Page more frequently to engage in conversations happening there about your company, products and services or industry, and likely to post more frequently and with more relevance as a result.

“Gone will be the days that scheduled blast posts are effective,” says Melberg.  “Companies who succeed with Timeline for Brands will be those who can create a theme with content that is bigger than the products or services they sell and who create a strategy for helping build passion and engagement around that mission on Facebook and integrate that across their entire marketing strategy.”

Facebook is also giving companies the opportunity to become more creative with custom apps.  Similar to popular social media break-out site, Pinterest, companies can now create Facebook apps for their Pages using customized verbs for actions taken on the Page.  Instead of “Liked” for instance, Pinterest uses “Pinned”.  While existing apps will continue to work (with potentially some maintenance), it’s easy to see that a whole new world is opening up for companies ready to take advantage of this exciting new phase of marketing on Facebook.

Are you one of the many magazine readers who have been scanning up a storm while flipping through the pages of favorite publications? According to Nellymoser, a mobile marketing firm, the use of their QR codes by magazines has spiked by 228% over the last year.

QR code to view our packages.

What does this mean for the publications? “It’s clearly a great opportunity for the print industry to keep up with the ever-increasing use of technology,” said Online Marketing Strategist Caroline Melberg. “Since 40% of mobile phone users have smartphones – and that number is increasing – the use of QR codes will most likely continue to grow.”

BizReport.com reported on the findings, sharing that 2011 saw a major increase in the printing of QR codes. “In 2011 almost 4,500 QR codes appeared within ads and editorial of the U.S.’s top 100 magazines. The year started off with 352 codes in Q1. It grew to 1,899 in Q4, which is 439% growth,” reported Helen Leggatt of BizReport.com.

So if printing QR codes in a magazine has a positive outcome, is it better to add more codes per issue, or will that overwhelm readers? The information showed that the more QR codes that were added in a magazine, the higher the response rate.

“QR codes are a powerful business tool because their results are very measurable,” said Melberg. “It’s very simple to use a QR code creator that allows you to track the results to see how many readers are scanning the code. You can test the effectiveness of your ads by comparing their numbers to one another to see which ones have the highest response rates.”

Do you think QR codes are helpful? Do you think they will have longevity in the online marketing world?

Posting too frequently on social media sites can annoy friends and followers, but if you’re not posting often enough, you might be missing your chance to stay top-of-mind to your target audience. If you’re the administrator for a company’s Facebook page, do you know how often you should be posting?

According to Social Media Strategist Caroline Melberg, the convergence between Twitter and Facebook continues. “The half-life of a Facebook post is now 3.2 hours, and the new Facebook Timeline feature means that amount of time will continue to shrink,” said Melberg. “No longer can a business post once per day to their page and expect that they will achieve the reach they are hoping for.  This means businesses will need to post more frequently to their Facebook pages to achieve the same reach as they did prior to Timeline.”

Just like Twitter, you can now start to think of Facebook like a “stream” versus a lake.  What you see floating by is dependent upon when you are sitting there, and different people will be sitting at different times. With Facebook Timeline, you’ll want to send more messages down stream in order to reach folks who watch at different times.

It’s also critical that you check your Facebook Insights to find out what the best times for you to post are – those times when you receive the most engagement. Be sure to monitor that on a regular basis, as we expect to see this change with Timeline.

While Facebook Timline was a major change, what do you think will be the next big change in the world of social media?

Do you know if your Facebook profile is in violation of any rules? What about your business or company page? While some people might not see any problem with bending a rule or two, Facebook is really stepping up to enforce their guidelines in 2012– and many users could lose their pages or profiles.

Did you even know that by setting up a Facebook personal profile, you are acknowledging that you will adhere to the following guidelines?

• Facebook users must provide their real names and information
• You will not provide any false personal information on Facebook, or create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.
• You will not create more than one personal profile.
• If we disable your account, you will not create another one without our permission.You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).
• If you select a username for your account we reserve the right to remove or reclaim it if we believe appropriate (such as when a trademark owner complains about a username that does not closely relate to a user’s actual name)

And more…

Here’s an example – if you meant to set up a company or business profile but accidentally set it up as a personal profile, Facebook is allowing you to switch the account to a business page to correct the accident. Another option is to delete the duplicate personal profile and setup the correct brand page. Facebook has also made it possible to merge duplicate company pages that you may have accidentally set up.

Please note that if you are planning to make many changes to a page, you probably want to make sure you’re confident in what you’re doing, or that you get help from someone who knows what he or she is doing. Just make sure that the person(s) handling the details of your account can advise you correctly. After all,  some of the changes you make to your account are permanent.

Facebook is simply trying to ensure safety and convenience for all users. Although the social media giant is making an effort to allow people to correct their mistakes, this may not continue forever. Eventually people, brands and companies who do not abide by Facebook’s rules or adhere to ethical standards could have their profiles deleted or blocked.

Guidelines provided by Facebook.com.

Oh, what the click of one button can do. A single click can cause an uproar of negative responses, uncover groundbreaking stories, or release an unlimited amount of information. In this case, we take a look at Ad Age‘s article about individuals and representatives of companies who seem to have simply clicked “Post” before thinking twice.

Are you always double-checking your details before posting content online?

From the offensive tweets of a spokesperson impersonating a duck, to the ‘Qwik’ fail of a new name and site for a DVD rental service, 2011 definitely saw its fair share of social media blunders. Twitter was a common site for many of the mishaps, including a short rant about the drivers of the Motor City that was posted on Chrysler’s own Twitter account by accident. One person on the list was even fined $500,000 for the contents of his tweet – that’s an expensive fee for a post that was 160 characters or less.

Keep in mind that what you post online can be seen as a direct reflection of your character. Most people don’t think that accidentally sending their next text to the wrong person or place could result in the loss of their job – and it’s likely that New York congressman Anthony Weiner didn’t think so either.

What can be learned from this entertaining list? Think twice and check your facts before posting anything online – especially if you’re posting on the behalf of another person or entity. If you wouldn’t be willing to have the information printed on the front cover of Time, don’t publish it online.

Do you have a social media policy in place in case you or your business made a social media mistake?

Are you having trouble keeping your personal information password-protected without even knowing it? A recent article by Forbes.com serves as an excellent reminder that your secret password might not be so secret. The site has included a list of “25 ‘Worst Passwords’ of 2011,” and you might be surprised by some of them.

Do you know if your online passwords are safe enough to protect your personal information?

While identity theft is still on the rise, it is necessary to keep yourself as safe as possible – especially when it comes to online activity. Yes, ecommerce and online banking can be very convenient and easy, but how can you make sure it is safe too? The first step is making sure your passwords are strong enough to keep your personal information protected and secure. Caroline Melberg, Social Media Strategist, shares a few tips for creating safe passwords.

• Never use “admin” as a username or password. It is far too common and obvious! This is the same for the name of your pet(s). Using predictable words make it even easier for someone to simply guess your password.

• Never use the same password for all of your accounts. That way if someone were able to break into one of your accounts, that person would have everything needed to steal your identity through all of your accounts.

• Interchange uppercase and lowercase letters in your password. For example, “Yellow” is weaker than “yELloW,” even though it is the same word.

• Add numbers and symbols to your password whenever possible, such as “rEd279$”

• To remember your passwords more easily, always use the same format. For example, if my format were always a series four letters, followed by three numbers, then followed by two symbols, it would be easier to remember.

If you have additional concerns for password protection, there are programs and applications, such as Splash ID, that are secure password managers to keep your passwords both confidential and organized.

Just make sure you’re doing everything you can to keep your personal information in the right hands.

Do you have a social media policy in place for your business? A recent study by Grant Thornton LLP and Financial Executives Research Foundation, Inc. (FERF) has provided a few statistics that might make business owners consider putting a policy in place.

A press release from Grant Thornton LLP finds that “executives of public and private companies see social media as a growing set of marketing tools, but have not yet developed the necessary compliance and risk policies and procedures.”

Why have a policy for social media? According to Thomas Thompson, Jr. of FERF, “Social media cuts across many areas of a company (such as HR, marketing, communications and legal, among others). Therefore any policy surrounding it should be the result of a multidisciplinary approach,” said Thompson.

The release made it clear that social media is not seen as just a flash in the pan by business professionals. It reported that 53% of the senior financial executives who responded see the corporate use of social media increasing significantly over the next year, and 48% feel that social media will be an important component of their future corporate marketing efforts.

What about the social media activity of the employees within your company? Have you established whether or not they can post online on behalf of the company? This is a major part of tracking the brand image of your business.

Recently a California Starbucks employee was fired after a song he wrote and performed making fun of some of his demanding customers went viral. He did not post the video on behalf of Starbucks, but it was still very negative publicity for the company and brand image. Yes, free speech does exist, but posting content online really gives the first amendment a run for its money.

No matter how active your brand or company is on social media, it is imperative to have social media guidelines set in place for safety. That way, when questions arise about rules and regulations, or worse – a crisis – you have prepared answers and a plan of action coordinated ahead of time.

To read the full press release, visit GrantThornton.com/socialmedia.