By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

“Social Media has created a human filter for quality content,” writes Vadim Lavrusik for Mashable. It’s the lede of his article on “Why Social Media Reinvigorates the Market for Quality Journalism.”

I’d like to take the premise a step further, because social media really reinvigorates the market for nearly everything.

Just as ten years ago, Google made it easier than ever to search for something online, now with social media it’s easier than ever to get a friend’s or acquaintance’s opinion to help you make a better decision.  That decision could be any number of things, from the meaningful decisions we seek guidance on every day, to the less meaningful ways to spend five minutes on the internet: looking at a captioned picture of cats, watching a video of a adolescent girl turning to the Dark Side, reading an article of what happens next in the latest Facebook lawsuit.

In both respects, social media is raising the quality of sharing information. There are funnier times being spent on the internet and more informed decisions are being made every day.  Just recently, a couple of friends were looking to buy a new car. They turned to Facebook and their friends there and ended up making a great purchase.  Then a week later, a mutual friend was starting his new car purchase.  He was told to look back to the previous advice shared on the social network and is closing in on making his decision as well.

We can trust the personal recommendations that our friends make because they are friends. Similarly, there’s a growing value in the social media space because of that human filter for quality content. We don’t have to rely on an algorithm; we can rely on a person. In social media, if someone makes a bad recommendation or if that link just wasn’t funny enough, it’s easy to unfollow them. Similarly, if someone keeps making quality suggestions and gives informed opinions, it’ll be easier to take their advice when looking to make the more meaningful decisions we often face.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

There’s some great information to be had in a new infographic making the rounds today. Click on the image to the right to see it full-sized.

One of the most interesting bits, taken from the data, is that there seems to be a search plateau over the last two years.  People are still joining social networks at high numbers, but they’re getting to them in different ways.

Another fascinating point on the graphic is the networks that are on the decline. MySpace and Friendster are both showing a rather precipitous fall since 2009.  All the while, sites like Tumblr, StumbleUpon and Reddit are taking off.

From my perspective, I like the quick-sharing nature of the sites like Reddit. I can glance at the top stories, see if there’s anything interesting and if I want to dive into the comments, I can.  Reddit even offers motivation for submitting stories and making worthwhile comments with its Karma system.  People can get up-voted or down-voted accordingly to the content they submit.

There’s a lot of good information on the graphic, including some interesting extremes. Click the image to expand the view.  Of course, the largest social network is still Facebook and Twitter still has nearly 200 million accounts. It’s good to see where the tremendous growth is happening.

By MATT SCHULER, Digital Architect, Marx Layne

If you’re running your own business, you’re living a busy life. 40-hour workweeks are a starting point, and more likely you’re pouring in 60+ hours. This doesn’t bother most entrepreneurs though, because their business is their passion.  They want to see a grand idea through to its end. No one knows the direction of a business better than its founder, but should that founder be doing everything?

Even in a small business, doing everything can be overwhelming.  The layers of strategy to successfully promote, manage and run a business are adding up every day. Reminded of the children’s movie “Shrek”, run a business successfully and you’ll have a pretty big onion.

“There’s a lot more to [businesses] than people think,” says Shrek. Of course, I substituted “businesses” there for “ogres” but the point remains the same. If you’re successfully running a business, there are going to be a number of areas that you need support on.

Mashable asked the question in an article this morning, “Should You Outsource Your Social Media Efforts?”  At Marx Layne, we manage a number of social media accounts successfully for businesses of varying size, so emphatically I’d answer yes.  There can be a great advantage to giving social media control over to a firm that understands your goals and has an appreciation of the layers of your business.  It’s a partnership.

The Mashable article references a survey of 8,500 small businesses across the U.S. that reports more than two-thirds of small merchants use social media.  In the same survey, more than one-third of those companies say “lack of time and resources is their top online marketing challenge.” Combining the two, it’s easy to come to the conclusion that Mashable does, small businesses need support for social media.

Outsourcing your social media efforts can be benefical, but each business is different and has different pros and cons to outsourcing the work.  Mashable has some great questions you should ask yourself if you’re looking to ease the burden on social media. The questions and some snippets are below, but make sure to check out the full answers in the article.

Can effective social media drive your business growth?

While investing in social media might make sense for an online merchant or local restaurant, a small tax preparation service or local plumber may have more difficulty justifying the time and effort. These businesses may get a better return on their time and money by ensuring that their business shows up in online searches, or by engaging with customers for positive reviews.

How well is your social media working today?

An experienced social media marketing consultant has the advantage of thinking about social media 24/7 — with multiple clients, they’re also sharing the cost of staying ahead of the curve. They not only know what works, but they also have the luxury of experimenting and trying new things with different clients.

Could outsourcing free up your time to focus on business operations?

Even if you’re pretty savvy when it comes to social media, you wear many hats as a business owner… and you probably want to have a life outside of work. For some businesses, the choice to outsource social media comes down to the relative value of their time.

How do you measure ROI?

Make sure you’ve established some measurable goals to ensure that your social media spending is moving the needle for your business.