If you’re not using social media to promote your business, you’re missing out.

A recent study by Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group, called the ENGAGEMENTdb study, ranks the “world’s most valuable brands based on how they leverage social media to interact with customers.” Able to measure and monitor brand engagement, ENGAGEMENTdb is the first of its kind. Essentially, Wetpaint and Altimeter Group are measuring social media’s financial value. For example, how does a Twitter account actually pay off — or does it even pay off at all?

So the study took the world’s 100 most valuable brands (as measured by BusinessWeek/Interbrand “Best Global Brands 2008″ rankings) and looked at their social media use — how well the brands are engaging their consumers and how that affects their revenue and profit. What the study found was that those 100 brands are “experiencing a direct correlation between top financial performance and deep social media engagement.”

What exactly does that mean? Simply put, companies engaging in social media are more financially successful.

At Get Page One, we’re firm believers in the power of social media marketing. But you can’t just sign up for accounts on Twitter, Facebook, etc. and hope for it to pay off. You have to work hard at it and be consistent in the way you use it — you can’t just sign up and leave. Successful social media marketing involves signing up for social media accounts and actually being social — interacting with other users, regularly updating and participating.

Engage in social media, be consistent and see it literally pay off.

Online advertising is pointless. So says Matthew Robson, a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern. Robson was asked by Morgan Stanley’s European media analysts to write a report on the likes and dislikes of teenagers, and that report wound up making today’s front page of the Financial Times.

In a Guardian article, Edward Hill-Wood, executive director of Morgan Stanley’s European media team, said that Robson’s report was “one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights” they have seen. Compared to the team’s usual research, Robson’s report generated five to six times more responses.

Pop-up ads, banner ads — they’re all seen as “extremely annoying and pointless” by teens. This feeling isn’t limited to just websites, though. Instead of listening to music on the radio, teens go to advertising-free streaming music sites like Last.fm where they can listen without interruption.

Along with radio, television and newspapers are losing ground with teens, who don’t really see the use in taking the time to read a long article when they can just read a summary of it online.

Robson’s report is great because it’s gotten people talking and thinking about where things are headed, especially advertising. And from what his report says, the future of advertising is pretty clear. As we grow more and more used to using the internet, it seems we get better and better at tuning out advertising — even those annoying pop-up ads. People who advertise on websites can’t turn to the radio, because listeners are going to ad-free sites to hear music, or they’re changing the dial during commercial breaks. With DVRs and TiVos — and with so many shows available online — it’s pretty easy to avoid television advertising as well.

Technology is changing, and so is advertising. If you want to keep up, you absolutely have to adjust — traditional advertising is no longer effective. Though consumers are treating online advertising like it’s invisible, they’re still using the internet. You have to be there when they’re looking for you. An example: Say you’re a guitar shop. You know that if you place an ad on a music site, it’s likely that almost all of the site’s visitors are going to ignore your ad, even if they actually are in the market for a guitar. When those potential customers decide that they are ready to start shopping, they’re going to go to Google and search for a place to get what they’re looking for. If you don’t show up in the results, how will they find you?

When it comes to advertising today, search engine optimization is essential.