Just as the Internet transformed the way business is done, social media are changing the way business is done on the Internet. Companies of every description are formulating their “social strategy,” or have already done so and are making their way often by trial and error into this largely uncharted territory. And just when many marketing execs were finally getting their brains wrapped around Facebook, along comes Twitter, introducing yet another channel.

For some small businesses, placing a Facebook page or assigning staff to twitter is the extent of their social strategy; it’s the we’d better do something approach, often motivated by fear of missing the bandwagon. But companies that recognize the opportunities in the new paradigm and indeed, who actually recognize it as a new paradigm are finding more effective, more thoughtful, more productive ways to engage their constituents in the social space.

Tagged is a major social media site that been overshadowed of late by the voluminous media coverage being given to Twitter and Facebook. But depending on the numbers cited and on Twitter’s meteoric growth rate, Tagged is the number three or four social networking site, with over 70 million worldwide users. The Tagged premise is “social discovery.” All user profiles are visible to all other users, and users can communicate with one another without first having to be friended or followed. Tagged growth has also been fast, with a roughly tenfold increase in users over the past 18—24 months, and all the accompanying scalability challenges that kind of growth brings.

Can Businesses Count on Social Media?  So much is at stake in this race to become the Google of social media. Any one of the players could be king of the hill at any point in time, but the whims of the media and vicissitudes of users can depose the order in a flash. It is not unlikely, either, especially with alternative paradigms in the mix, that multiple sites will share leadership status.

But with businesses devoting more and more of their marketing resources into creating dialogs on social sites, performance could be a crucial factor in determining if sites can keep their users and keep them active, and consequently fuel their revenue streams from businesses. And while the complaints have diminished somewhat both Facebook and Twitter were targets of loud user ire in 2008 performance of the social sites is still far from perfect.

What’s a Marketer to Do?   Marketers are in a tough spot in the social media scene. They have no control over the channels And very little control over what’s being said about them in those channels. They can try to shape the dialog, they can stay highly tuned in and respond to what users are saying. They can enhance the experience with useful applications, social-delivered customer service, and special channel-only offers. But it all involves a lot more dependence, trust, and lack of control than marketers are used to in the traditional channels.