Social networking is the #1 activity online. Even though Google gets the most visitors, Facebook is where most of us are spending our time. And it’s not just about Facebook anymore. We are spending a lot of time on LinkedIn, YouTube, Tumblr and Twitter. While there are some clear major players in the social space, the social media universe continues to expand and 2011 was a banner year for the idea of an “Interest Graph.”

In 2011, we saw Google launching Google+ and Pinterest grewing at an astounding rate. Facebook launched “Timeline” and “frictionless sharing” with partners like the much anticipated Spotify. Facebook also acquired design companies and the team behind Gowalla, showing the company’s intent to provide a consistent experience across devices and becoming a more prominent player in the mobile space.

2011 was also a big year for social IPOs: From LinkedIn to Groupon and Zynga, small tech startups are becoming public companies. There is much speculation around the existence of a bubble, and some say growth cannot continue because social networks are running out of users. However, Facebook is not yet public and we still don’t see a clear exit for Twitter.

There might be saturation, but social media has changed the way we live. And this means social media is no longer a question for marketers. Companies of all sizes have accepted and even embraced the importance of social media. Investments are starting to increase and companies are now building teams to tackle the new risks and opportunities that social media has created. While Facebook and Twitter ad spending is expected to grow only at a decreasing rate, advanced brands are leveraging more digital dollars for their social media marketing strategies and tactics. “Social” has been an afterthought for many years, but marketing campaigns and programs are finally starting to feel inherently social.

This presentation is about the state of social media and social media marketing on January 1st, 2012:

Michael Jaindl is the VP of Client Services for Buddy Media, a Facebook management system that has been making a lot of news lately. The Buddy Media Platform allows brands, including Samsung (check out our Samsung USA page), to create engaging Facebook tabs, monitor the wall, schedule posts, and more.

b) Motivate your fans to share content:
Brands and agencies need to create interesting content that fans are motivated to share. Facebook users have become very savvy and they realize that there is a negative impact to spamming their network. They can receive a negative comment, be hidden, or worst yet defriended. Just as people understand that forwarding on an email chain letter is spammy they get that sharing boring content can hurt their social cred. Just because there is a share button on a piece of content doesn’t mean that anyone will actually share it. It’s important to create compelling content that your fans are motivated to share.

2. Companies like Zynga and Buddy Media have become an important part of the Facebook ecosystem. How is BuddyMedia enhancing Facebook and the overall social experience?

Imagine that you’re on a NASCAR pit crew and you need to use a standard monkey wrench to change your car’s tires instead of a power gun. The pit crews using the power gun will have changed all four tires by the time you’ve loosed your first lug nut. NASCAR races are very competitive and won by fractions of a second. A pit crew that uses the wrong tools has no chance of winning the race. Buddy Media offers “power tools” for Facebook through our Buddy Media Platform. The Buddy Media Platform helps brands and agencies amplify word-of-mouth marketing, monitor & moderate conversations, quickly launch/manage shareable content, and track performance through a comprehensive analytics suite. 2011 is going to be an interesting year because a lot of ground, in terms of brand equity, is going to be won and lost based on how effectively brands leverage social media to connect with their customers. If a brand or agency isn’t using the right tools they are going to lose ground.

You probably already heard about the fake @BPGlobalPR Twitter account that was created to criticize the tragic BP oil spill. The account pretends to be an official BP handle, and with a mere 138 tweets, it already has aproximately 85K followers (and it has been listed by 2095 users!) in just a few days.

Of course, the AdAge article and other media have helped spread awareness of the account, but the reason for its speedy rise in followers is mostly due to the severity of BP’s oil spill combined with the the cleverness and relevance of the tweets.

Humor goes a long way when it comes to Twitter. Fake accounts like this one are created all the time, but they rarely make much of an impact. We’ve seen fake Twitter accounts for everything from presidents dictators (ie. @ChavezCandanga_) to Star Wars characters (ie. @DarthVader), but the most effective ”fake” Twitter accounts are often parodies (ie. @BogusBogusky, @ChuckNorris_ @Nick_Nolte) or created by actual fans (ie. @PeggyOlson and maybe @BadPeggyOlson). However, @BPGlobalPR is going against BP with intelligence, and dare I say it.. strategy?

I have no idea who is behind this @BPGlobalPR account, but I wouldn’t be surprised if another “fake” Twitterer like @michael_bay was doing it.

BP has decided not to go after the rogue account, at least for now, and I applaud this because they have decided to focus on communicating through their real account @BP_America and seem to be doing a very good job there despite the huge challenge they are facing. (Update: The @BP_America account was recently hacked for a short time.)

BP could’ve easily asked Twitter to suspend the @BPGlobalPR account soon after it was created, as most companies would’ve done, and as CNN and Megan Fox probably did with @cnnbreaking and @the_megan_fox, respectively. I guess BP could try to reach out to the creator(s) to try to make some peace, but who knows whether much would come out of doing so.

So where does a fake @BPGlobalPR account with a potentially serious, long-term agenda go from here?

Some fakers like @stephentcolbert, with an impressive 96K followers, seem to be trying to profit from their clever tweets through Ad.ly ads. Of course, independent Twitter ad networks are on the way out so @stephentcolbert better have a book something in mind because his ad.ly tweets are not going to keep paying for the broadband connection.

Unless suspended, the @BPGlobalPR account will likely stay open for a long time. And what about spreading itself to other social networks? Well, they seem to have recently opened a fake Facebook Page.

The Facebook Page only has 8 fans at this point, but with several comments (spammy ones) on Mashable’s FB posts, I’m sure other people will start to “like” the FB Page.

(Update: Looks like there is a another “BP Global PR” Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/BPGlobalPR and that one has 315 fans.)

One thing is for sure: The @BPGlobalPR account will be remembered as one of the most toxic (very sorry for the pun) cases to remember when considering a crisis response plan. It’s become quite obvious that every company needs a very integrated approach to PR, customer service, and social marketing so everyone should consider the worst of the worst when it comes to getting prepared. We should also pay close  attention to the way that companies like BP, Nestle, United, Domino’s, and others have reacted in difficult times. Learn from those who have been proactive, those who have responded quickly, and those who have extended heartfelt apologies.

More importantly, we should not point a finger at the companies that have failed to respond effectively because as real-time communication becomes the norm and as lurkers become “critics” and “creators”… this could easily happen to any company or person for any kind of problem or crisis. If you think you’re immune because of the industry you’re in or the history you’ve had, it’s time to let go of your complacency because we live in a brave new social world that can be quickly changed by anyone with an Internet connection.

Social Media is really all about this: integrating life and technology.

Facebook is the most widely used, widely known, and perhaps widely trusted social network in the world. As someone who got on Facebook when it first launched for universities (I was part of the SMU network before most people knew what Facebook was), I’ve seen Zuckerberg & Co. grow and change through the years, and one thing is for sure: Facebook has a bold and ambitious vision to become the web’s social platform.

I vividly remember having conversations in which people made fun of Facebook back when MySpace was “the social network.” I also remember making fun of Facebook myself… only to jump in a few days later and realize that social media was what I wanted to do with my life. I figured that the social web is full of visionaries and I’d rather spend my time learning from them and becoming a bit more like them (creative risk-takers with ideas that could change the world), than simply doing the whole get-a-job-to-buy-the-groceries thing. The social web was is fascinating and it’s evolving at a pace that is astounding. I wouldn’t be surprised if Facebook eventually actually try to connect us to everything (like I jokingly predicted a year ago).

Anyways, if I’m right in saying that social media is about the integration of life and technology, then Facebook is really unto something.

As the Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics, I worried a bit when the rumors about the terminology changes from “Become a Fan” to “Like” started to emerge. I wondered about what Facebook was thinking about and whether this would actually be good for users (because if it’s not good for users, it’s not good for anyone in the long-term). I like to think that most of the people who decided to join our Facebook Fan Page (sorry, but I will probably call it a ” Fan Page” for a while) are real fans, so saying good-bye to that word seemed confusing at best. The word “Fan” had seemed perfect for the longest time because it was like making an emotional decision: “Yes, I am a fan!”

I also figured there was something greater going on, something more “visionary” than simply changing the word with which people decide to associate themselves to a brand or a band or a book or a personality on Facebook.

After hearing the announcements from Facebook’s f8 Conference, and seeing the new “Like” button appear on sites like Levi’s Store and NHL (as well as the interesting “Recommend” button on CNN, and the newly socialized version of Pandora), I got excited. Very excited.

Maybe a bit too excited for my beautiful wife (and the average person) to understand.

I won’t get into the details about the new Graph API and Social Plugins, but I highly recommend RWW’s “Definitive Guide for Publishers,” Shiv Singh’s “Internet’s Glue” argument, Dave Winer’s not-so-optimistic thoughts,  Dare Obasanjo’s “Web Dev Perspective,” and Jeremiah Owyang’s “First Take Analysis.”

Make sure you also check out Scobleizer’s “Facebook Ambition” post.

The fact is that I like the social web and I am fascinated by apps/services/sites like Twitter, Foursquare, Plancast, Yelp, Digg, Stitcher, DailyBooth, Cinch, and 23andMe. ChatRoulette frightens and intrigues me, but the idea makes sense in the world we live in, and I’m guessing it makes more sense to the next generations than my own.

I don’t actually use most of the vast array of ”integrations of life and technology,” but I think they give us a better glimpse about each other’s lives and about human interaction as a whole.

While most people don’t get excited about the concept of the internets, and probably don’t think about it much, many of them (getting close to 500 million) are on Facebook. And they’re on Facebook a lot.

My wife, parents, grandparents, pre-teen cousins, friends from High School I never thought I’d see again, and pretty much anyone with an internet connection that I know of.. is on Facebook.

It’s a bit surreal when you think about it.

People are on Facebook because it’s easy to get immersed. It’s easy to connect. It’s easy to reveal your identity, and to be yourself with your friends. The complexity of Facebook disappears when you see your friends’ thoughts, pictures, videos, and dare I say it, pokes.

The idea of extending the world’s best social network, into any web site, in order to bring a huge part of the social web into it, is simply brilliant. It was a really good move by Facebook.

Of course, there are a few scary parts in this, including privacy concerns and the potential for evil (with great power comes the ability take advantage of that power).

More than anything, Facebook Connect, the Graph API, and the world-wide-web “Like” button continue to integrate life and technology in a real-time, creative, and even  somewhat perplexing way that adds social context to the web.

It’s hard to predict exactly where this is all going. But, if people like it, use it, learn, and innovate from it, this could be a wild and fun ride that further connects us, and hopefully takes us offline a bit to meet for lunch to talk about how much we like Jarome Iginla, and how excited about the 2010 World Cup we have been for the last 4 years.

I had the very cool opportunity to speak at this year’s SXSW Interactive as part of the Future15: Diversity series, which was organized by Glenda Bautista. The presentation, titled “The Online Latino: A New Digital Native,” was all about Latin Americans and the web.

While it is a myth that Latin Americans are not online, only 30% of them are. The presentation went into the challenges (poverty, inequality, censorship, and the social/economic/digital divide), as well as what is changing (tech hubs, encouraging governments, businesses rolling out infrastructure, and a rapidly growing online community).

If you’re interested in learning more about what is happening online and offline in Latin America, including Streisand effects, citizen journalism, social networking, innovative start-ups, and stories about the people that are converting ideas into movements, check out the slides and videos below. Feedback (through email or comments) is appreciated :)

Thanks to Diego Contreras (aka Diegoliath) for helping me with the design, Jon Gipson for recording the video, and Kara Andrade for writing the original proposal with me and helping out with ideas, insights, and stats.

Google Buzz has created some buzz in the past couple of days. A Twitter killer it is not, but it is definitely the most exciting social web service I’ve seen since FriendFeed. Tim O’Reilly has said that Google has “taken the social media lessons of Twitter,” and Jason Calacanis thinks “Google Buzz 1.0 is better than Facebook after six or seven years.”

Not only does Buzz combine some of the best aspects of Google Wave, FriendFeed, and Twitter, but it’s also built into GMail. By adding the mobile component (so we can take it anywhere), and integrating feeds from Twitter, Flickr, Picasa, and Blogger (so we can pull outside content), Google Buzz starts to sound like a very promising service of its own, and not just another GMail feature.

But the question that everyone is wondering about is:  Can Google really create a new social network that people will want to use?

It is true that Google has failed at many, if not all things social in the past, but this time it seems different. From day one, Buzz already makes great use of multimedia, is open to anyone, makes use of @ replies (ie. @socialnerdia@gmail.com), and allows us to have conversations in real-time.

So, with early adopters rushing to test, criticize, and/or embrace Google Buzz, should companies be creating accounts just as they have done on Twitter and Facebook?

Traditionally, companies have been slow to join social networks. The idea of unproven and confusing new social services creates unwillingness to jump in until other companies have. But with a rapidly changing and increasingly social online landscape, it is essential to understand the things that people are doing. In order to really “get it” companies could spend months researching, brainstorming, and strategizing. Or they could just do what regular people do: Jump in and experiment.

Earlier today (well, technically yesterday), I opened up an account on behalf of Samsung USA. If you have not read my blog before, I recently joined Samsung as Social Media Manager; exploring new technologies and services is part of what I do for a living now.

In the first two hours I posted a few thoughts and started commenting on other postings, similar to how I usually interact on Twitter, but mostly focused around how Google Buzz works. I started following some of the people I usually think of first on Twitter. I figured I could try to do a #followfriday, even though I know Google doesn’t support it in the way that Twitter does. So I “@ replied” some early adopter “buzzers” who were posting interesting things on Google Buzz and added a tag with meme potential: #BUZZwednesday.

After a couple of hours of playing with Buzz I decided to head out for a work out. On my way back, I received a “kudos” tweet with a link to a TechCrunch article. The title and link worried me at first, but it made sense once I started reading. Apparently MG Siegler, one of the “buzzers” I had written about had posted screenshots and thoughts about our Samsung buzzing. While the @ reply was what made MG aware of us, it was also what led him to think that “this” could “get annoying” because it so happens that when you @ reply someone on Google Buzz, it sends them an email that appears on Gmail’s Inbox.

And I agree, it could get annoying, but not because of brands or people commenting and @ replying, but simply because Google still has some work to do in regards to how it organizes and helps us filter data. LifeHacker has some tips on how to filter it yourself, but I believe Google could help us out a bit.

Google is probably actively paying attention to what people are saying and how they are using the service. From Kevin Rose and Chris Pirillo to Robert Scoble and Dan Schawbel, everyone has great ideas about what Google Buzz could or should be. We are all starting to wonder if we will see clients like Seesmic for Buzz, as well as opportunities for third party apps, integration with monitoring services like Sysomos, and all kinds of other things.

As for me, I intend to continue to explore Google Buzz. I really think everyone working in business, marketing, advertising, customer service, and anything related to the web, should start exploring as well.

Google Buzz is great for personal use, but it will also evolve to be a good place for companies to listen and engage with people. As cheesy as that may sound, “listening” and “engaging” with customers and potential customers could be more valuable than what we have typically come to know as marketing.

I’m very proud to work for a company that embraces the future of the web and is willing to explore areas that are still “unproven.” I’m also proud that Samsung was the first major brand to give Google Buzz a try. It was very cool to see that many of those already on Buzz were not only welcoming, but also highly encouraging of brands like Samsung joining in:

Disclaimer: I am a Social Media Manager for Samsung Electronics. While I am employed by Samsung, the views expressed on this blog are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of Samsung.