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Have you Facebook-friended your mom yet? Even if you haven’t, you probably have more than a few connections on the social network with little ones of their own, using the site as a way to communicate, stay in touch with families and exchange information about parenting, among other things.

eMarketer estimates 23 million US moms are on Facebook this year—a figure that counts women with children under 18 in the household who use the site at least once each month. That represents well over two-thirds of all online moms in the country. Overall, eMarketer estimates that just 57.1% of internet users (including children) use Facebook monthly.

Facebook, of course, is not the only social networking site moms use. Overall, 26.5 million mothers with kids in the home use social networks at least once per month, or 79.2% of online moms. This compares to 63.7% of internet users overall.

These estimates mean that as of 2011, moms will make up 17.9% of all US social network users and 17.4% of Facebook users. But the high rates of penetration reached in this group mean growth will be relatively slow, and moms will actually lose share on the sites over time. By 2013, eMarketer estimates, 16.1% of US Facebook users will be moms with children in the home, while 17.1% of all US social network users will be mothers.

Website, Facebook Website and Twitter page design with Content Management System, e-commerce, shopping cart, appointment request form, blog and contact form.

Website, Facebook Website and Twitter page design with Content Management System, e-commerce, shopping cart, appointment request form, blog and contact form.

Website, Facebook Website and Twitter page design with Content Management System, e-commerce, shopping cart, appointment request form, blog and contact form.

Yet marketers have concerns with the communities they’ve built on social sites

Social media marketers feel that having a presence on social sites is more important than advertising there, but there are still challenges related to keeping a community running online.

In July 2011,Microsoft Advertising and Advertiser Perceptions surveyed social media marketers in six countries around the world and found that 74% of them thought it was very important to have a presence on Facebook, but only 57% felt the same way about advertising there. On Twitter, presence also carried more weight, with 47% of respondents saying they thought it was very important. But in Twitter’s case, there was not as much of a difference between presence and advertising, at 42%.

Of the marketers surveyed, 72% agreed that measuring return on investment from social media was too hard, an oft-cited challenge of social media overall. More specific to having a brand page or account, 56% of marketers said turnover was too high and 52% said their fan or follower base was not target-appropriate.

Looking at social media budgets gives more insight into how marketers are keeping their communities engaged online.

Social media marketers reported that 48% of their budgets are used to attract new members to their pages, with 28% focused on social sites such as Facebook or Twitter, and 20% from off of these sites. On the other hand, 19% of budgets are used to keep current Facebook or Twitter communities engaged, and an additional 20% of budgets are spent on paid media to maintain existing fan bases.

Continually working to keep social communities engaged will help marketers reduce turnover. And as social media marketers become more mature in their outreach and social networks improve their platforms, marketers can work to better target advertising to reach the right audience and track and measure success using better metrics. Time and experience with social media will help marketers overcome the challenge of maintaining communities at social sites.

Facebook users have both positive and negative expectations when “liking” a brand

Companies are often on the hunt for more “likes” for their Facebook pages, hoping to get more brand advocates and social media fans. However only 42% of US Facebook users think marketers should interpret a “like” in that way.

 ExactTarget, “Subscribers, Fans and Followers: The Meaning of Like,” which found that 25% of US Facebook users disagree that marketers should interpret “like” to mean they are a fan or advocate of the company.

Facebook users themselves have some preconceived notions about what to expect when they “like” a company on the site, and among those who do not become brand fans, many are negative. More than half of users expect to be bombarded with messages or ads (54%), while 45% do not want to give companies access to profile information and 31% do not want to push content from a company into friends’ newsfeeds. These possibilities have prevented users from making brand connections on the social networking giant.

On the flip side, many US Facebook users also have certain expectations of perks they should get after following a company’s Facebook page.

The ExactTarget study found that 58% of US Facebook users expect to gain access to exclusive content, events or sales after “liking” a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts or promotions. Additionally 47% expect to see updates about the company, person or organization they “liked” in their newsfeed, which bodes well for brands as they work to have their content always show up for their followers.

Additionally, younger consumers, ExactTarget found, have fewer expectations and generally “like” brands as a form of expression, not to get certain perks. Meanwhile, older consumers want something of value for “liking” a brand. By listening to what their target fanbase wants out of the Facebook relationship, marketers can get more interaction on their page and encourage more people to “like” rather than avoid brands on Facebook.

At the company’s f8 developer conference in San Francisco, Zuckerberg laid out Facebook’s vision for the future of profiles. He described the history of the Facebook profile, starting with the original profile from 2006, when Facebook was still known as TheFacebook. He explained that through all of these iterations, Facebook profiles have been a good gauge of what you’re doing now, but they are not a good way to share what you or your friends have done in the past.

“We’re more than what we did recently,” Zuckerberg explained to the audience.

It was then that Zuckerberg unveiled Timeline, the revamped version of the Facebook Profile. It’s a way to show off who you are, what you do and where you’ve been. It’s a complete design overhaul that makes a visual history of everything you’ve ever done, all the way to when you were born.

Facebook automatically adds photos, status updates and life events from your Facebook history to your timeline, but you can also add photos and content from you past to fill out the “Way Back” section. In his demo, Zuckerberg showed how to add a baby picture to the beginning of your timeline.

“It’s fun and easy to fill out your timeline,” Zuckerberg said.

The new profiles also include a map feature that lets you see where you’ve been, thanks to Facebook Places. It maps out your travel. You can even mark your place of birth. But perhaps the most striking feature is the cover photo, which displays a giant image at the top of the new profile page.

Timeline’s purpose is to resurface all the content you have created on Facebook. The problem is simple: once a status updates leaves your profile, you are unlikely to ever see it again. Zuckerberg and the Facebook team want to make Facebook a place to express who you are while discovering who your friends are at the same time.

For more information and to sign up to receive a notification when timeline is ready, go to facebook.com/about/timeline

Social media managers are the people who run a business’s Facebook page, Twitter account, YouTube channel and so on. As more and more small businesses flock to the social media networks to get their brand out there many of their social media managers are facing a common problem. All too often, these managers are not kept in the communication loop as they should be and the result can lead to endless amounts of frustration. In some cases, business owners can begin to complain about not seeing enough buzz generated about their company and therefore fail to see the value in their social media outreach. The problem isn’t that social media doesn’t work, it’s that by not including your social media manager in on upcoming news, events, and branding strategy meetings you’re basically shooting yourself in the proverbial foot.

The good news is this issue is completely avoidable. It’s important to keep two things in mind when bringing a social media manager onto your team.

First, social media IS marketing. No matter how you slice it, marketing is becoming one of the top ways social media is being utilized. Yes, it can be used for customer service or just to give your company or brand a more hip and customer friendly appeal. But are you including your social media manager in every marketing meeting? Are you CCing them on the status of big clients or projects you have in the works? You should be. They are your first and instantaneous line of communication to your audience. They should be in on every conversation where strategies on branding, marketing, public relations , promotions and customer relations are discussed.

Second, social media can and should be proactive. All too often, small businesses post photos and announcements to their pages and Twitter feeds after the event has already occurred. In the world where we can get our news in under 2 seconds and an audience’s attention span is shorter than 140 characters those amazing photos of a store opening is old news. Sure, it should still be posted, people do love photos. But that’s not generating buzz about your business. The 3 weeks leading up to the opening are where the value in social media lies. Including your social media manager in all project management meetings allows them to craft a strategy and reach your fan base, and hopefully beyond, to get the word out.

When crafting marketing campaigns social media managers can also be extremely helpful. They have their eyes and ears on your clients and customers on a consistent basis. Who better to help you craft that digital ad or to tell you what share incentive will best resonate with your target audience?

By remaining open with your social media manager you can better hone your marketing campaigns and strategies as well as increase the exposure of press and news about your company and its services or products. So the next time you go to send that email on the status of that big event you have coming up be sure you CC your friendly neighborhood social media manager on it. They could be the key to boosting your marketing’s success.

You have a small business and you haven’t bought into the social media craze? Guess what? Silence is no longer an option. People are online talking about your company as you read this, whether you like or not.  If you don’t engage in the conversation, you risk losing your customers. If You have more ideas, please share them in the comments section at the bottom of the post. The more ideas, the better.

1. ASSESS YOUR ASSETS:
The first action you should take before engaging in online marketing or social media marketing and engagement is to look at what are you’re trying to promote. What are your assets? Who are your target customers? It may seem obvious but some times we don’t see what is in front of us and you might be overseeing a good opportunity.

2. SIGN-UP FOR SOCIAL MEDIA:
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn. Facebook allows you to create a business page.  Make sure you read the rules for businesses first. You can even ‘create a page’ through your personal account, if your business allows you to do so. That makes it easy for small business owners to manage it. On LinkedIn, every employee becomes your best advocate.

3. FIND A SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGER:
Managing multiple social networks is daunting. So, before you start posting content, requesting friends and adding followers, sign-up for a social media manager such as Ping.fm and HootSuite. It allows you to manage all of your accounts on one site and schedule your messages to deploy so you don’t have to sit over it all day. It also allows you to review the success of the tweets real-time with click-through statistics. And you can gather all the mentions of your brand, industry or search terms on Twitter through it as well.

4. POST UPDATES:
It’s important to have content on your social media pages before you start adding friends and followers. When you try to find friends, they’re going to look at the page to see if they want to follow you. So you need to give them a reason to follow you first. Provide valuable information about the industry. Post pictures of your business or people enjoying your business. On YouTube, post videos of your business, customer experiences, and encourage customers to make their own. You can also ‘favorite’ other YouTube users’ videos and they will end up on your page. If you’re a small airport, posting cool aerobatic videos of the Patriots’ Jet Team is a possibility that would add value to those who ‘subscribe’ to your page. Also, share those videos on your other accounts such as Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn.

5. FIND FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS:
Twitter and Google+ are easiest. Search keywords to find followers. On Twitter,  If you’re a small airport, for example, search ‘pilot. You can also search ‘flying.’ Searching your town and surrounding areas as well to find key influencers, news outlets, bloggers and city officials. Also, search for large players in your market. For airports, try Boeing, Virgin America, United Airlines and Southwest Airlines. If they share your posts, you have the potential to reach thousands.  I suggest adding just a few people at a time.  On Google+, comment on one of their posts immediately. On Twitter, mention them in a post immediately. You can also comment on one of their posts or simply say that you look forward to following their great content.  If it’s a reporter or blogger, give them story ideas and leads that have nothing to do with your business. Get them to trust you. To find fans on Facebook, it’s best to start with real friends and family. You can also pay as little as $100 to have an ad for your Facebook page syndicate across the network for a designated period of time.

6. ENGAGE FRIENDS AND FOLLOWERS:
I once received a friend request on Facebook from the owner of a flower shop. When she asked to be my friend, she typed a personal message, saying how impressed she was with my work and how she’s enjoyed watching my work evolve. I couldn’t remember where I knew her from. Was it a television station, radio station, or was it from school? I wasn’t sure. I was too embarrassed to ask. And she seemed harmless. So, I confirmed her friend request and wrote her a note back thanking her for her feedback and saying that I look forward to connecting. She proceeded over the next few months to follow my videos and stories. She engaged in great debates and conversation with me as well as my friends. I knew just days after I added her that I didn’t know her personally. But I was so impressed with her and the relationship we’d developed over the months, that when I was traveling to her town, Fresno, I suggested we have lunch. When I arrived she had a full basket of goodies from her shop, including the best dark chocolate covered strawberries I’ve ever tasted, waiting for me. Since then, I have been a regular customer and am quick to share her products on my page.
So, your first priority should be building that relationship with people, not pitching your service or product.
Give them story ideas and leads that have nothing to do with your business.

On Facebook:
Share their links on your wall and/or comment on them. Wish them a Happy Birthday. Birthdays are big on Facebook. Always acknowledge them. Maybe even offer them a discount coupon for a birthday treat via Facebook.

On Twitter:
Retweet their stories and comment on them! Reply to each and every message. Keep the conversation going. Get them to trust you. For example, one of my favorite Twitter followers is an amazing example of how to do it right. She has thousands of followers. But she has even more friends. She friended thousands of people little by little and engaged with them, retweeting their tweets, commenting on their tweets, checking in on topics those folks had tweeted on days before. Now, she’s constantly in conversation with folks like Morgan Fairchild, Alyssa Milano and Kathy Ireland. Who would’ve thought? She’s not famous. The key is she knows how to engage. And she never misses a #FF (Follow Friday). On Friday’s many people share with their friends, their favorite people to follow, encouraging others to follow them as well.

Google+:
It’s a cross between Facebook and Twitter. It’s great because you can create circles of certain people you want to target for different reasons. It makes it easier to post certain promotions to one group vs. another.
LinkedIn: The best way to engage with potential customers is by joining industry groups and starting group discussions.

Very important:
Do not ask for help/favors from people until you’re friends or at least warm acquaintances with them. And the #1 way to become friends is to offer tons of help/favors without expecting anything in return. In the words of Michael Ellsberg, Forbes Contributor and Author of "Self-Educated Millionaires: The Seven Skills You’ll Never Learn in College, "Networking is a *long term* activity – it CANNOT be done for short-term results. Follow these basic concepts, and you’ll be ahead of 99.99% of the knuckleheads out there who are botching their networking attempts online!" Also, a great book to read is by Brian Solis, Principal at Altimeter Group, "Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web."

7. STAY CURRENT:
Get alerts sent to your phone when folks engage with you via your social networking sites – at least in the beginning – that way you respond quickly.