Want free ice cream? Just click around Facebook a couple of times.

According to Web Pro News:

Baskin-Robbins Facebook fans can sign up for “Group Scoop” on Facebook and start their own group or joins someone else’s. Once the number of people in a “Group Scoop” reaches 31, the organizer and all 30 other members will receive a coupon for a free 2.5 oz scoop of ice cream or a 3 oz swirl of soft serve.
“Group Scoop is a fun way for our fans to enjoy a free scoop of Baskin-Robbins ice cream with their Facebook friends, even if they are miles apart,” said David Nagel, Baskin-Robbins Director of Brand Excitement. “Groups of 31 Facebook Fans will be able to enjoy a scoop of their favorite flavor, on us.”

Simple. Smart. Social media savvy. Let’s take a look at how Facebook has created marketing capabilities for the ice cream icon that simply didn’t exist before the social media age:

Creates Incentive to Share

Basically, something like this encourages Facebook users do the heavy lifting of getting your word out. Tell your friends (in an easily doable and provable way), and we’ll reward you. It’s simple.

Exponentially Expands the Promotion’s Capabilities

These sorts of marketing ideas aren’t new—at least in theory. In the past, Baskin Robbins could‘ve taken an ad out in the paper saying something like “Bring three friends, get one ice cream free.” But with an online platform like Facebook, it’s much easier to ramp up the numbers involved with a promotion.

In other words, “Bring 31 friends all at once to our store and get free ice cream!” would seem like a non-starter, and would probably draw a discrimination lawsuit from lonely people. With Facebook, the promotion could easily be for 50 or a 100 people, because that kind of viral organization requires only a few clicks from each customer.

And isn’t this what all those met-once-at-a-party or took-math-together-in-high-school-I-think-but-am-not-entirely-sure acquaintances you have listed as “friends” on Facebook are for?

Creates Incentive to Check Back

Internet marketing campaigns like these create a feeling that the Facebook Fan Page is a way for customers to shrewdly beat the system (and get free stuff). As we mentioned a few weeks ago, the single biggest reason Facebook users become “fans” or befriend the page of an online business is for the possibility of promotions and discounts.

Furthermore, with elements like “Flavor of the Month,” Baskin Robbins is using their Fan Page as a spot where exclusive announcements are made — the fourth biggest reason why customers become fans of companies on Facebook.

Grabs User’s Full Attention

When a Facebook user comes to your Fan Page, the opportunities for reaching them are much more powerful than, say, an ad on the side of a news article they’re reading that you simply hope will catch their eye. Instead, a visitor is committing their focus specifically to your message when they arrive at your page.

Even if customers only come to read the details of the promotion, the opportunities to reach them within those details are endless. And once you get them in the room, you’re giving all your fancy graphics, pictures, and copy a chance to shine.

What is Facebook Places?

It’s Facebook’s new location-based service (LBS), built on a Bing Maps platform, and it’s a giant twist in the race between all the major search engines and social media platforms to perfect local search capabilities. LBS allows mobile smartphone users to broadcast out via Twitter, Facebook, or LBS-specific platforms where they are at any particular moment, and what they think about it.

Facebook’s version is similar to popular apps like Foursquare and Gowalla, where users “check in” via their smartphone wherever they go, broadcast their whereabouts on Twitter, and sort of compete for titles by spending the most time at a particular place (who wants to be mayor of the 45th St. McDonald’s?? I’m personally the mayor of Masterlink Interactive and DFWSEM Dallas Fort Worth Search Engine Marketing Association ). If you have a Twitter feed, and if you have noticed an increase of one-line “I am here”-type tweets (helpful or annoying, depending on how you use Twitter), you can thank LBS.

The appeal is obvious: Let’s say you’re at a huge shopping mall—LBS can help you meet up with friends who happen to be there as well. Or let’s say you go to a concert. You “check in,” and your other LBS-using friends who you didn’t realize were at the same show see it. Commence arm-in-arm anthem-swaying.

What’s different about Facebook’s version?

The easy integration into its pre-existing platform makes Facebook’s version a natural development. Whereas Foursquare and Gowalla have to piggyback off of unattached third-party technologies like Twitter, Facebook can tailor its product specifically to seamlessly integrate into the ever-evolving strengths of its site, like newsfeeds and user walls.

Furthermore, half a billion people already use Facebook, making it far more likely for this sort of LBS usage to hit critical mass. Foursquare and Gowalla have really just been early-adopters apps, popular mostly in the tech crowd. Facebook could do for LBS what Apple did for mp3s.

Why does it matter for businesses?

Basically, it brings companies and regular Facebook users much closer together. Your friend “checks in” at a coffee shop they like, and Facebook posts it on the Places page, the customer’s wall, and the customer’s newsfeed. It’s free publicity—and a link back to the cafe’s Places page, where they can promote themselves with gusto.

Right now, most companies on Facebook have carved out their niche via a Fan Page—the profiles we talked about last week that allow businesses to connect and converse with customers, and broadcast information and announcements. If you haven’t started a Fan Page for your business yet, we highly recommend it.

According to Search Engine Land, most business Fan Pages will eventually morph into Facebook Places pages, with a heavier emphasis on maps and real-time updating. A local search function will eventually be integrated in, as well.

In other words, your Places page registers you as a dot on the map. It’s an important dot.

How can I capitalize on this?

Let’s say you’re a Thai restaurant in Dallas, and you announce a big one-day discount on pumpkin curry on your Places page. It’s a smashing success, and Facebook-using curry cravers are beating down the door to get their fix. If several of them “check in” and comment about the discount, it’ll create a buzz on Facebook that spreads your brand and attracts more customers.

Furthermore, Places can let you keep an eye on your competiton (what kinds of deals and discounts they’re offering, and what kind of feedback they’re getting). Pay attention, and who knows what you might learn.

And if you’re really savvy, you could find ways to offer incentives for Facebook users to stop by and check in. The possibilities are endless.

It’s a place for friends to connect, to catch up, to plan parties, and to upload embarrassing and political-career-destroying pictures of said parties.

So just how much, really, can businesses, products, and brands fit into the ever-expanding and evolving Facebook landscape?

Google has been trying to explore exactly that question, and has dug up some interesting numbers from a study done by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies. The gist? Those party-picture-posting people might be more interested in your business’ Facebook page than you might think:

Photo courtesy Google Retail Advertising Blog.

So while a slim majority of Facebook users don’t bother with business pages on the site, the fact that even 45 percent do (with 27 percent of users following three brands or more) is hugely significant. More than half a billion people now use Facebook, and 225 million of those willing to form at least limited virtual relationships with businesses on the site is nothing to sniff at — especially considering how carefully the free, formerly-college-exclusive networking site has had to tread about introducing both advertising and commercial interests.

So, with that in mind, perhaps more interesting (and useful) are the numbers showing why Facebook users “friend” or “like” a particular company or brand:

• 25 percent to gain access to promotions and discounts.
• 18 percent to show support for the brand.
• 10 percent simply because it’s fun and entertaining.
• 8 percent to be the first to hear new information.

In other words, draw them in with opportunity, and you’ll have their ear when it’s time to make a sale.

Regardless, it all shows just how important a robust social media element of your Internet marketing strategy has become. Tools like Facebook and Twitter allow you to control and spread your message, to give loyal customers “insider access” that creates incentive for them to repeatedly return, to explore and harness viral marketing opportunities, and to create healthy forums for feedback, customer service, and dialogue. It’s simply a great way to connect.

Contact one of our Dallas social media marketing experts for more information about how to maximize your social media presence.

Depending on how you look at it, it’s either the golden age of customer service or the cutthroat age of bullying business. Regardless, it’s the era of Twitter reviews, Chowhound critiques, and Facebook rants. Welcome to the Yelp generation.

For the most part, the web and social media have created a wonderful, vibrant community built on robust exchanges of information and opinion. Everyone has access to a bullhorn. Every customer has three or four ways to rate and review businesses. This empowers customers, and gives companies access to the feedback needed to truly hone their services around customer and client desires and needs. But it also creates a thousand new ways for your reputation to get dragged through the mud.

Techcrunch goes so far to say it plainly: “Reputation is dead.”

Trying to control, or even manage, your online reputation is becoming increasingly difficult. And much like the fight by big labels against the illegal sharing of music, it will soon become pointless to even try. It’s time we all just give up on the small fights and become more accepting of the indiscretions of our fellow humans. Because the skeletons are coming out of the closet and onto the front porch.

Today we have quick fire and semi or completely anonymous attacks on people, brands, businesses and just about everything else. And it is becoming increasingly findable on the search engines. Twitter, Yelp, Facebook, etc. are the new printing presses, and absolutely everyone, even the random wingnuts, have access.[...]

The random slam against your restaurant anonymously left by the owner of the competitor around the corner. The Twitter flame about how bad a driver you are, complete with a link to a picture of your license plate.[...]

Our minds haven’t evolved much over the last few thousands of years, but the spread of quick fire opinions is now moving at the speed of light and forever findable on the Internet. We’re still wired to think of gossip as something that spreads quietly behind the scenes, and relatively slowly. But we’re already in a world where it’s all completely public, there are few repercussions to the person spreading it, and it is easily searchable. No wonder people freak out. We’re fish out of water.

Despite its ubiquity, the web is still a relatively new, rapidly evolving part of life for many people in America. And it might take quite a long time for our society to adapt and learn how to handle this new overload of information and opinion in a healthy way.

Unfortunately—while, yes, we should be more forgiving, more willing to take what we read with a grain of salt, and less reliant on the opinions of others—anyone who’s been the dinged with an unfair review online somewhere (even if only as result of an honest misunderstanding) or been the target of an organized smear campaign by a rival competitor knows that simply hoping for a society-wide Internet paradigm shift isn’t enough. And people seem to say things behind the mask of the Internet that they never would face-to-face.

That’s why we offer our online reputation management (ORM) service. Basically, we employ a three-step process to ensure you a reputation that’s accurately reflective of your sterling business:

• We monitor & track what’s being said about your company around the web.
• We analyze how such comments affect your brand, reputation, and, ultimately, success as a business.
• We influence the results by participating in the conversation, consulting with you to speak up in defense of your products and services, and creating positive listings in the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to help push down the negative results.

The last thing you want to do is be blind to the negative reviews being posted about your business.

We can give you the peace of mind that comes with both accurately understanding your own reputation and having a few tools to fight back, and basically make the unpredictable nature of user-generated content just a little bit more, well, predictable and manageable.

Contact us for more information about online reputation management.

Sick of social media, sorry it was ever invented, sad about the direction it’s taking our society, and skeptical about its importance for small businesses? Well… sorry.

According to Web Pro News:
Millennials are expected to make online sharing a lifelong habit, according to new research from Pew Internet and Elon University.

In an online survey of 895 technology stakeholders and critics, 67 percent agreed with the following statement:

“By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s “digital natives”) will continue to be ambient broadcasters who disclose a great deal of personal information in order to stay connected and take advantage of social, economic, and political opportunities. Even as they mature, have families, and take on more significant responsibilities, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will carry forward.”

Some 29 percent agreed with the opposite statement:

“By 2020, members of Generation Y (today’s “digital natives”) will have “grown out” of much of their use of social networks, multiplayer online games and other time-consuming, transparency-engendering online tools. As they age and find new interests and commitments, their enthusiasm for widespread information sharing will abate.”

If there is a reduction in use of social media functions, it will most likely be in a backlash against negative over-sharing, not with the obvious benefits of social media that people will continue to reap. Think less teen girl gossip; more valuable information that people crave.
Most of those surveyed believed the sharing of personal information online has many social benefits as people open up to others in order to build friendships, form and find communities, seek help, and build their reputations. They said Millennials have already seen the benefits and will not reduce their use of these social tools over the next decade as they take on more responsibilities while growing older.

“The majority noted that new social norms that reward disclosure are already in place among the young,” said Pew Internet Director Lee Rainie.

“Some experts also expressed hope that society will be more forgiving of those whose youthful mistakes are on display in social media such as Facebook picture albums or YouTube videos.”

[...] “Some of the experts said an awkward trial-and-error period is unfolding and will continue over the next decade, as people adjust to new realities about how social networks perform and as new boundaries are set about the personal information that is appropriate to share,” said Janna Anderson, director of the Imagining the Internet Center and a co-author of the study.

All this to say, if you’re skeptical about the long-term importance of investing in an Internet marketing strategy (with a robust social media component), don’t be. Even if Twitter or Facebook fall out of favor, new platforms will almost assuredly rise to take their place.

People like easy access to information. People like the “bullhorn effect” of being able to control and broadcast information. People like community, and crave exchange. Social media sparks all of this.

Learn it. Know it. Use it to your business’s advantage. Contact our Dallas social media experts—we’ll show you how.

It’s a bit of a paradox—the web tool that has made social information sharing easier than ever has been under increasing fire from users for being largely unwilling to restrain those flows of information. But Facebook has, in fact, been gradually eroding its default standards for user privacy, and the people are upset.

According to WebProNews:

Since Facebook announced its plans to take over the web, there has been a lot of talk about privacy concerns, and about deletion of Facebook profiles. There is also concern about the lack of openness in Facebook’s Open Graph initiative. Others are just bored with the social network. Whatever the reasons, an increasing number of people seem to be interested in deleting their Facebook profiles.

Matt Cutts and other Googlers de-activated their accounts soon after the Open Graph initiative was announced. Remember, you don’t have to delete the account to de-activate it. Facebook makes it very easy to stay. In fact, if you go to delete your account, they will try to guilt you into staying by telling you which of your friends will miss you.

Matt Cutts, we will miss you! Matt is apparently not alone. Search Engine Land discovered how there are a growing number of people searching for how to delete their Facebook page. If you currently start a search on Google typing in “dele” Google Suggest shows “delete Facebook account” as its top suggestion:

Google suggests you delete your Facebook account

“Delete Facebook” also shows as a growing search phrase in Google Trends:

"Delete Facebook" rising on Google Trends

To see just how much and how quickly Facebook has eroded their default privacy settings over the past few years, check out this nifty infographic from Matt McKeon on The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook.

This presents obvious problems for personal Facebook users, for whom privacy usually matters. Open access to pictures, likes and dislikes, comments, wall postings, and status updates to the entire Internet could make anyone uncomfortable.

But should these privacy concerns matter to businesses, whose sole purpose of Facebook use is usually to pass along as much information about itself to the general public as possible?

There might be some times you’ll want to restrict information. Let’s say you have a photo album of an office party that you only want friends, fans, and colleagues to see. Or perhaps you’d like to write a note to all your “confirmed” customers—to whom you might only have connections via Facebook rather than email—without sending something out to the entire web. For the most part, Facebook still gives you these options.

But in the end, it’s just a matter of how much you want to share, and with whom. All users can opt to tighten up access to their profiles. Except for certain gaps in privacy options, it’s Facebook’s default settings that bother people the most.

So the best practice for social media for businesses on Facebook  is to keep anything you want partially private off the site in the first place, and open up the rest for all the Facebook (and beyond) world to see. The site still provides unprecedented Internet marketing opportunities. As WebProNews also points out, Facebook is still the place to reach people (and monetize them!):

“…the point is, Facebook is giving users a lot more reasons to use it, and in some cases it’s not really even a conscious decision. See the recent South Park episode for a good illustration about how Facebook continues to suck more people in. Facebook is where the people are online.”

That’s worth repeating: Facebook is (still) where the people are online. And for businesses, that’s the point.

Apparently, providing 100 million people a free service with no way to make money from it isn’t a lasting business strategy.

Twitter (finally) began trying to capitalize on their enormous success when it rolled out a form of limited advertising last week. We’ve been expecting this move. Curious about it. Even rooting for it, because we assumed it would be something innovative that would change the Dallas Internet marketing landscape. And now it’s here.

Well… almost.

According to the TimesOnline:

Last week at Chirp, its first conference for software developers, the firm revealed it has almost 106m registered users and is adding 300,000 a day

Twitter’s popularity hasn’t been in doubt, but the firm’s management has been bugged by constant questions about how they will spin those tweets into gold. “As much as we want to tell people to shut the hell up, it’s important,” said co-founder Ev Williams last week.

Plan A is an advertising platform called Promoted Tweets that will serve up ads based on keywords in Twitter search queries. [...]

For critics, the plan doesn’t come close to justifying Twitter’s $1 billion (£650m) valuation. Promoted Tweets, however, is just the start. What Twitter does next is worrying many of the people who have propelled it to the top.

Basically, the move is just a first step. To understand how it works, take Starbucks for one popular example. Currently, if you Twitter search “coffee,” the first result is clearly identified as “Promoted by Starbucks Coffee” from the Starbucks Twitter feed. Even when new results pop up, the Promoted Tweet keeps the top spot. The ad changes whenever the company chirps out something new (every few days or so) specifically for that purpose.

Starbucks Sponsored Tweet

It works well for instant updates about promotions and catchy one-liner ads, and it takes a more subtle, conversational approach to advertising.

And it’s an interesting idea because, well, the ads are required to work. Twitter is leery of any sort of intrusive advertising that would slow the microblogging platform’s explosive growth, and it seems like it doesn’t want any sponsored dead weight clogging users’ search results. So if the Tweet doesn’t catch on (via retweets and click-throughs ) they change it. According to Twitter co-founder Biz Stone: “There is one big difference between a Promoted Tweet and a regular Tweet. Promoted Tweets must meet a higher bar—they must resonate with users.”

Let’s think about that — essentially, ads will only be allowed if they are effective. That might sound like an unusual burden, but it also reduces the risk of investing a bunch of money in a failing ad campaign. The success of this aspect is one we’ll follow closely.

So how you can make Twitter advertising work for your Social Media marketing strategy?

Well, so far, Twitter is experimenting with only a few highly visible partners, like Red Bull, Best Buy, Bravo, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America. And, so far, the ads are limited to search results. But all this could soon change.

According to Stone, Twitter is just taking it one step at a time:

“Before we roll out more phases, we want to get a better understanding of the resonance of Promoted Tweets, user experience and advertiser value. Once this is done, we plan to allow Promoted Tweets to be shown by Twitter clients and other ecosystem partners and to expand beyond Twitter search, including displaying relevant Promoted Tweets in your timelines in a way that is useful to you.”

“Since all Promoted Tweets are organic Tweets, there is not a single “ad” in our Promoted Tweets platform that isn’t already an organic part of Twitter. This is distinct from both traditional search advertising and more recent social advertising. Promoted Tweets will also be timely. Like any other Tweet, the connection between you and a Promoted Tweet in real-time provides a powerful means of delivering information relevant to you at the moment.”

So you’ll have to be patient. But, as WebProNews reminds us, Twitter can already be put to work for your business in a variety of ways:

1. Get in front of journalists. More of them are using Twitter and Facebook according to a recent study.
2. Use things like Twitter share buttons on content to promote sharing of content (once it’s been tweeted, it may get retweeted repeatedly).
3. Remember that brands on Facebook and Twitter are favored by consumers.
4. You can learn some things about audience engagement from Justin Bieber. Seriously.
5. Get found in real-time search (here are some tips for that).

Stay tuned. We’ll keep you updated here on the blog as well as on the Masterlink Interactive Twitter page. Follow Us!

Stuart Frazier | Operations Manager for Masterlink Interactive

It’s big news on the web and especially with SEO and Social Media Marketing specialists. Facebook overcame internet giant Google as the most visited website in the US for the week ending March 13, 2010. This isn’t the first time Facebook has beat out Google in terms of visits, “Facebook.com recently reached the #1 ranking on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as well as the weekend of March 6th and 7th” according to Heather Dougherty, Director of Research at Hitwise who released the numbers. Although this is the first time the social networking site has beaten out Google for an entire week. Perhaps it’s Google who is sending more traffic to Facebook via real time search.

Facebook Beats Google

Although the social media darling only narrowly beat out the search engine giant by .04%, Facebook shows no signs of slowing down as it continues gaining market share, which “increased 185% last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased 9% during the same time frame” added Dougherty.

So what does this mean for your business? You need to be were your customers are. While they are certainly still using Google they are most likely spending time on the popular social networking site as well. According to the Hitwise report, Facebook and Google combined accounted for 14% of all US internet visits last week.

If your website depends on Google for the majority of your traffic it might be time to rethink your internet marketing strategy and include social media. Does your business have a Facebook presence? Are you reaching out to your potential customers and making sure you are present where they are so you can be easily found and become engaged with them? If not go get your Facebook page now (and become a fan of Masterlink Interactive on Facebook while you’re there!). If you need help on Facebook ask any teenager or call the social media marketing specialists at Masterlink Interactive to help you plan a complete interactive marketing plan for your business ensuring you can be found by your potential customers wherever they may be on the world wide webz!

Your tire company is having a big sale. What’s the best way to spread the news? Here’s a method that just got very, very important to understand:

In a (rather fitting) Twitter announcement a few weeks ago, Google revealed that public status updates from Facebook will now be included in their search engine’s real-time search feature. It’s just the latest step in Google’s quest to perfect organization of and access to what seems like all the information in the entire world (also check out Kimber’s excellent take on Google’s new Personalized Search).

Real-time search is, essentially, instant access to the latest information about a particular subject popping up all over the web. When people post an update, you can instantly find it (not in all cases). The technique has been the gold at the end of the social media rainbow for a long time, but finally broke through recently thanks to Twitter’s massive success. Google jumped in a few months ago, allowing users to search through aggregated updates from platforms like Twitter, FriendFeed, and more — and now Facebook status updates.

Here they explain why:

“Search is a natural starting point for discovering the world’s information, and we strive to bring you the freshest, most comprehensive and relevant search results over an ever expanding universe of content on the multitude of devices you use to access it.

Now, immediately after conducting a search, you can see live updates from people on popular sites like Twitter and FriendFeed, as well as headlines from news and blog posts published just seconds before. When they are relevant, we’ll rank these latest results to show the freshest information right on the search results page.

Try searching for your favorite TV show, sporting event or the latest development on a recent government bill. Whether it’s an eyewitness tweet, a breaking news story or a fresh blog post, you can find it on Google right after it’s published on the web.”

You can access these updates via the “options” link located at the top of the search results page.

Compare this to a regular Google search — the process we all know and love and spend hours and hours trying to understand in order to help businesses secure a spot high up in the results — where the search engine tries to return the best possible information, but not necessarily the latest. When it comes to Internet marketing, the latest can sometimes be as effective as the best.

WebProNews puts the business impact this way:

“This seems to indicate that brands should be getting a good amount of play for Facebook appearances in Google’s real-time search results, and possibly in the real-time search results in general (due to Facebook’s huge user-base). Right now, Facebook isn’t dominating the results, but that is bound to change with it being the largest (by far) social network on the web…

This should also lead to Facebook Pages getting more fans, due to the increased exposure. Beware, however, that running a promotion on your Facebook Page may cost you ten thousand dollars, because Facebook’s policy guidelines indicate that you must get written approval from a Facebook account rep. In order to get one of those, you must spend that much in advertising, according to Eric Eldon of Inside Facebook.

So how will this affect the Dallas Internet marketing community?

Primarily, it shows just how important establishing a social media presence — including Facebook — should be for businesses. Now, a public status update on your business’ page won’t just reach your Facebook friends and fans, but potentially anyone, anywhere in the Dallas-Ft. Worth Metroplex (and beyond) using Google.

For example: you post a Facebook update about a sale your company is having on, let’s say, tires. If someone searches “Tire Sale in Dallas,” the idea is that your update will pop right up. It could be that easy but while this is a recent release we have seen the success vary on our customer base but believe as Google perfects the algorithm that this will soon change.

It’s a huge base, and an interactive marketing niche we’ll be pioneering at Masterlink Interactive throughout the near future. Stay tuned.

Stuart Frazier | Operations Manager for Masterlink Interactive

A Cash-Flow Positive Facebook Helps the Industry

Facebook is making money. It shouldn’t be shocking, we know.

But let’s be honest—social media is an industry that’s been more often rich in potential than profits. And no social media platform embodies this gap more than Facebook.

Despite the site’s massive growth, Mark Zuckerberg’s enterprise—launched in a Harvard dorm room five years ago—has actually struggled to break even. 300 million users (traffic has tripled from just 100 million a year ago) means a massive advertising base, but it also means prohibitive bandwidth and operations costs (a growing percentage of users come from developing countries, where advertisers are reluctant to invest).

But for the first time since the site hit the mainstream, enough cash is flowing in for the ballooning site to cover its operating expenses and continue to expand. It’s not quite profit, and major questions remain, but it could be a landmark step in the right direction.

So how should we—the social media community—read this latest news?

Facebook as the “Bellwether”

A profitable Facebook is good for the social media industry, primarily because an unprofitable Facebook could be devastating.

Look at it this way: While Facebook’s success would signify a well-run, innovative company capitalizing on an unprecedented user-base, Facebook’s failure would say more about systemic, industry-wide limitations. If a massive, efficient, innovative, pioneering company can’t turn profits, how are smaller ventures supposed to earn investor confidence?

In other words, with 300 million users, Facebook profits seem to some almost inevitable. But if even Facebook falls short on the bottom line, investors could see the basic premise of social media success—profits via advertising embedded in free content—as too inherently flawed to overcome any significant amount of operating costs.

It all comes down to targeted advertising, and the fact that Facebook has appeared to finally figure it out bodes well for the rest of the industry.

Investment Capital is Coming

Improved confidence should only signal an easing in venture capital, and the hard numbers appear to be particularly welcoming: $240 million from Microsoft in 2007. $200 million from Russian investment group Digital Sky last May.

Overall, since its 2004 launch, the site has raised nearly $600 million, and — with expected revenues of $500 million this year — appears to be in much better shape for a potential IPO in 2010.

“This is important to us because it sets Facebook up to be a strong independent service for the long term,” said Zuckerberg on his blog.

Belief in the system — and belief that the potential can, in fact, turn into real profits — boosts social media and internet marketing ventures industry-wide. Bellwether Facebook is again leading the way.

Stuart Frazier | Operations Manager for Masterlink Interactive