If you think back to your first car (and if it was like mine), it might not have been your dream car or even the coolest car on the block, but at least it got you from point A to point B.  In comparison to riding your bicycle or riding the bus to school, however, your car was the best.

Your first car may not have have been a Mercedes or BMW, but, plain and simple, it worked.

Unfortunately, many companies have the same philosophy when engaging in Internet Marketing, “It may not be the best, but it works.”  Or, “I don’t care what it looks like as long as its something.” 

Personally, I have been instilled with the belief, “If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right.”  The Social Media community follows this belief, as well.  The community can immediately determine the quality of the brand or product by its deliverance through Social Media channels.

Also, please don’t confuse quality with “high dollar”.  Not all quality has to be expensive – and in most cases concerning Social Media, it’s very inexpensive.  Most of what I, personally, do for myself costs next-to-nothing and 80% of my revenue is generated from Social Media.

Concerning quality, I’m referring to clear, concise deliverance; orderly, fresh presentation; and, of course, remember the audience you are targeting. Flat, basic landing pages may be great for older demographics, but the Social Media community is, for the most part, familiar with technology – its okay to use Flash, video and other Web 2.0 medias in your Internet marketing collateral.  Interestingly enough, the older demographics (55+) are now Facebook’s fastest growing demographic compared to only 4 months ago (which was 45+).  Familiarity with Web 2.0 collateral is rapidly expanding to the retirees.

One final note…

Your type of quality may not be considered Social Media quality.  In other words, what you may find exceptional, could be completely bland to a member of the Social Media community.  If you don’t know how to reach the Social Media crowd, hire someone who does. Furthermore, remember to take their advice.  After all, that is why you hired them.

Just because your company may have incorporated Social Media into it’s marketing strategy – it may have even gone as far as creating a Social Media team – doesn’t mean your management has adapted to Social Media trends or adopted its philosophies in the marketplace.

If you've ever sat in my seminars, you found very quickly that I love statistics.  As rapid as the Social Media horizon changes, so is the rate at which these statistics change.

Socialnomics, this past week, released some staggering statistics on the current impact of Social Media. Erik Qualman has done a fine job of compiling the data and its presentation.  I think you'd agree with me how amazing some of these statistics are. A few of these include:

1. 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media
2. Years to Reach 50 millions Users:  Radio (38 Years), TV (13 Years), Internet (4 Years), iPod (3 Years)…Facebook added 100 million users in less than 9 months…iPhone applications hit 1 billion in 9 months.
3. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest between the United States and Indonesia

Also, a few interesting facts concerning education:

1. 2009 US Department of Education study revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction
2. 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum
3. Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé…In 2009 Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen

Erik has posted the list of statistics along with their sources on his blog, just below the video.

Twitter was completely unavailable this morning for approximately 2 hours.  The microblogging platform that allows its users to post status and news updates in 140 characters or less was the victim of a DDoS attack. 

A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an instance in which the perpetrator consistently floods the victim with multiple, bogus requests and, in turn, overloads the server preventing it from answering good requests.  Apparently the load balancing system also failed.

In turn, many of Twitter's users turned to Facebook for distribution and sharing information.  Facebook, as a result, became sluggish this morning, as well.

There are two lessons we can learn from this morning's events:

1. While we are quickly approaching, social media is not fully ready to be the primary news source.  While it can assist in sharing information quickly across a broad audience, there are a few "kinks" that still need to resolved.
2. Have a backup.  Many of these social media platforms are developed and operated by individuals and small startups that simply do not have the capital to prevent downtime.  Instead of relying on one social media channel, incorporate multiple networks as you develop your marketing strategy.

As of the writing of this post, Twitter's "Replies" and "Direct Messages" feeds are still down.

The tried and true, traditional 80/20 rule has accurately described almost every aspect of our lives – business and personal. We have come to rely on its consistency when calculating our predictions. And, for most areas, we can continue to trust it. But, in regards to Social Media, the 80/20 rule needs to be adjusted to ensure the success of your business in today’s market.