Social media is the communications tool of the next generation.  A CNN article noted Facebook is booting 20,000 underage users per day.  The article reports nearly half of all 12-year-olds in the U.S. are using social media websites, even though they don’t meet the age requirements.

Youngsters are flocking to social media and Facebook, in particular.  And really, it is kids of all ages. Facebook has more than 500 million users. The flood of child users poses security risks, which is why Facebook is working to give the youngsters the boot until they are of minimum age.

Yet for trend watchers – the kid’s desire to be part of Facebook and other social media continues to highlight the long-term viability of social media.

When the world gives you lemons, you make lemonade.  Consider what Aflac is now doing.  Last week it fired Gilbert Gottfried – the voice of its famous duck – who was ousted for making insensitive remarks on Twitter about the disaster in Japan.  Now, Aflac is quickly looking for a new promotional campaign.  They are opening up the new voice to a contest.  Interested quackers can submit a 30-second audio or video file doing the Aflac squawk at www.quackaflac.com.

This shows two things:

1. Aflac quickly turned a negative into a positive

2. They continue to promote their brand.

Best of all, they got great PR out of it.  The note about Aflac appeared in the “Life” column of the USA Today this morning.  Now that’s something to quack about.

Are traditional research studies a thing of the past? Maybe not, but a top research buyer for Procter & Gamble Co.  says that research will change dramatically in the next few years because of the advancements in social media.

According to an article this morning in AdAge, marketing firms will have to find new ways to monitor and listen to their customers – thanks to social media. This may not mean the replacement of research, but the days of researchers sticking dogmatically to their numbers in the corner office of marketing companies may be finally coming to an end.

With social media research, testing and customer feedback is no longer a report on the shelf or a presentation in a marketing meeting.  It lives in front of everyone, every second of the day. To read more, visit AdAge.

The massive earthquake in Japan once again shows the power and speed of social media. When people – no matter where they are in the world – need to communicate, they are turning to Facebook, Twitter and other forms of social media to reach their loved ones.

This weekend, there was story after story about Japanese citizens reaching their family members from the tragedy-stricken country through Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.

The lesson for small businesses becomes clear – they can either learn how to communicate through this medium or their business might be swept away against the competition that does.

Facebook, Twitter and other social media vehicles prove their value in the middle of an emergency. We are all about to see what role social media will play in the rebuilding of a country.

By Will Wellons

The Wall Street Journal this week had a story on how Google is revamping the secret formula it uses to rank web pages in order to keep people from cheating.  Those dastardly cheaters are companies fighting for search engine optimization positions.  Google’s closely held secret formula has always created the need for SEO, marketing and public relations firms to generate tons of content in hopes of getting pages ranked higher and higher.  It’s much more complex than that, but that’s the simple form.

Here is our stance on SEO and the Google formula:

• Worry about your message.  If you worry about your message and get your message out consistently, your audience and the Google formula will take care of itself.
• You know your business better than anyone else.  Tell your story.  Tell it again.  Tell different elements of your story – educate your consumers.

If you take the time to follow these steps and some other easy steps, you will consistently rank fairly well in Google searches (assuming other SEO tactics have been taken care of when you built your website).  But the message here is: consistent, positive, educational content goes a long way – no matter what Google does to its secret formula.  To read more, visit The Wall Street Journal.