Let’s face it, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites have become the norm. In fact today, it’s rare to find anybody who hasn’t entered the game. According to the video, Social Media Revolution 2, based on the book “Socialnomics” by Eric Qualman, 96% of Generation Y has joined a social network and nearly 13% of married couples in the U.S. met through social media.

Alex Marcoux on Social Media

Another growing trend is the use of social media for business. When you look at the statistics, it’s ill-advised to think that social media is a fad. It took four years for 50 million people to use the internet, three years for 50 million to try I-Pods. In less than one year, Facebook added over 200 million people. Today, there are over 400 million active Facebook users and Twitter has hit more than 50 million tweets in a day. Additionally, people spend over 500 billion minutes per month on Facebook. When you look about these figures it is no wonder that business owners are recognizing the value of social media for their business.

We help small businesses with their marketing, public relations and social media, and while it’s clear that social media has become a standard public relations tool for businesses, I still see clients resisting to enter the game. Conversely, I also see companies jumping in head first because they fear being left behind. For those businesses taking the plunge into social networking, I routinely caution my clients to avoid a common mistake – proceeding without a plan.

Social networking is a commitment. While it may take little time to develop a site – it takes hours to execute your programs. Without a map to know where you’re going, and how you’re going to measure your results, you’re setting yourself up to invest a lot of time, money and to potentially become frustrated.

Have a plan. Set realistic goals and benchmarks and understand how you’re going to measure the social media site’s success. Know what you want to accomplish before you invest the time. Understand what you’re using as a control or baseline to compare “before and after.” The number of friends or followers will probably not be a good gauge for your ROI (Return on Investment) or success. Perhaps your success could be measured simply by the traffic going to your website, in which case use the tools available to you. You can find excellent material on Mashable, including HOW TO: Measure Social Media ROI.

For those business owners still reluctant to enter the craze, I’ve posted the video Social Media Revolution 2 (Refresh) below. Don’t get left behind, but before you move forward, be prepared and have a plan.

Whether you need training to develop or execute a social media plan, or you desire to get your website ranked using social media, blogging with SEO (search engine optimization), M Squared Public Relations & Marketing is positioned to assist your company to use this significant tool.