All of the major social media players have seen strong to explosive growth over the last 12 months. Mainstays of the social media world, MySpace and Flickr have produced modest to flat growth. Latecomers Facebook  and Linkedin posted strong triple digit growth over the last 12 months, with Facebook overtaking MySpace, in terms of unique visits, in December 2008. Currently, Facebook leads all social media sites with over 90 million unique visits in the month of March 2009. However, the story of the last 12 months is Twitter, whose explosive growth of over 1,000%, bringing their May 2009 unique visitor count to just under 20 million.

A brief snapshot of visitor trends in the major social media players.

What does this all mean?
While advertisers and marketing brand managers scratch their heads trying to figure out how to integrate social media into their campaigns, some standards of traditional marketing still stand strong. Media is judged on demographics, geographic proximity, and overall audience size. We should always strive to deliver the right message to the right audience at the right time.

Not all social media sites are the same. While there are many multi-site social media consumers, it is becoming clear that the loyal MySpace user is different from the loyal Facebook user. Twitter seems to be more commonly used with the Facebook crowd. However, with no clear plan in place to monetize and buy out bids from Google and Facebook in the news every other week, Twitter’s future business model is still unclear. Linkedin, though currently trailing the aforementioned in terms of monthly visitors, appeals to the niche of business, sort of a 21st century Rotary Club.

Business objectives should be considered and benefits weighed against the resources needed to establish and maintain a proper presence on any of these channels.

What to do?
Each social media site has its own strengths and weaknesses. For instance Facebook has the largest overall audience. Brands that have done the best have built a grass roots following within that network. Friends see other friends become “fans” of the brand and join in. Another powerful feature of this property is the ability to reach this audience with timely, relevant invitations to promotional events, such as a person’s favorite local music group playing at a coffee shop that they frequent. In short, Facebook is not the largest because they appeal to everyone with one thing. They appeal to lots of small groups with many things. Brands wanting to leverage this property should be patient and let the grass roots nature of this site run its course.

With just under 60 million visitors in May 2009, MySpace is still a force to be reckoned with.   Though their traffic has flattened out, they have a core audience that you will not find on Facebook. Their ability to target specific demographics makes MySpace a superior site for banner ad campaigns. This ability to target demographics, combined with their, still, massive audience should be appealing to most B2C brands.

As for Twitter, this is the first social media platform that has built itself upon the least common denominator of electronic communication, the short text message. The brilliance in the design of this site is the simplicity of participation, a la Google search. Brands that particiate in this channel need to be prepared for a much more interactive relationship with their audience, taking the good with the bad.

Linkedin seems to have the market in online business networking. Their resume-like profiles are an excellent way to filter and recruit new tallent into your organization. Additionally, Linkedin can be an excellent resource for figuring out if you have a person “on the inside” when interviewing for a job, or making a sales presentation.

Imagine you had Harry Potter working for you, and he only had one job: every time one of your customers thought about your product, he would instantaneously teleport right to their front door, wearing one of those sandwich-board thingies and carrying your brochure. That’s all he would do … put your company at the forefront of your customer’s minds, day after day after day.

While bachelor’s degrees in Interdimensional Travel may be rare in your market, thanks to the magic of Webstratics — Armstrong|Shank’s search engine marketing service — that kind of instant exposure is not only possible, but extremely effective.

“The power of search engine marketing comes from the fact that you are making contact with your customer right when they need you,” says J.D. Patton, Armstrong|Shank’s Director of Internet Marketing and all-around web wizard. “With other forms of advertising, your goal is to leave an impression that sticks with the consumer later. With Webstratics, your message impacts them at the exact moment they are making a buying decision. That’s huge.”

Webstratics encompasses three areas: search engine optimization, a process that will improve your web site’s chances of appearing at the top of search engine listings; search engine marketing; and web design.

“A website’s value comes from its potential to reach customers at all times,” says J.D. “Done right, it can provide a 24-hour contact point, information desk and ordering service for people in need of what you have to offer. Whether you have an existing website, or need help designing one from scratch, Webstratics has the ability maximize your effectiveness in all of those areas.”