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.

Last week, MAGNA, Mediabrands’ global media forecasting and investment strategy unit, put out a social media “forecast.” After exploring the question “What IS social media?”, they delivered their definition by socializing in public as well as on the Wikipedia page for Social Media. They also posted a Facebook note with the information.

So why deliver the information this way? Advantages of social media, they said, were that “anyone can add to the conversation,” while its limitations are that “most people still consume most social media content in a passive manner — which begs the question of whether or not our social media content was in fact social in nature, or more akin to traditional media.”

The other definitions of social media MAGNA collected were quite interesting. “The facilitation of word of mouth with technology,” “trackable conversational content about brands, products or anything,” “consumer generated content that influences perceptions” — these are just a few, but it’s easy to see a theme with these specific examples.

What MAGNA deemed their preferred definition is what they wound up adding to the Wikipedia page on Social Media: “a set of technologies, tools and platforms facilitating the discovery, participation and sharing of content.” They make a point to say at the end of their forecast that the definition of social media will change as the industry evolves, and they’re still refining their own definition of it.

If you want to add your thoughts to MAGNA’s forecast, they welcome input at their Facebook discussion.

Google Me lets users fill out their very own profile, and it was released just a few days ago. Fill out enough information on it, and it’ll likely show up at the bottom of the first page of results when someone searches for your name at Google.com.

Another online profile? Yawn. Well, hang on a second. Google Me is useful for online reputation management.

If you do a Google search for your name, what comes up on the first page? Maybe it’s a mix of results for several people who share your name, maybe it’s all about you, or maybe nothing useful comes up. If you’ve never thought much about what shows up when someone searches for you, we strongly suggest that you start paying close attention to this. Whether you’re applying for a job or you’re an established professional, people will search for your name on Google. And you can bet that they’ll look at everything that comes up on the first page and will judge you accordingly.

For this reason we can’t stress enough just how important online reputation management is. The best thing you can do is start working on your online reputation right now, making sure that what comes up for your name on that first page (and, even better, the next couple of pages) of results is positive and factual. A false, inaccurate and/or harmful piece of information someone posts online about you, your product or your company can seriously damage your reputation. Don’t wait around to make sure your first page of Google results is factual and positive.

So take the time to make a Google profile. It takes only a few minutes, and it’s certainly an easy way to get that last spot on Page One filled out with good information about yourself.

Just don’t forget about the other first-page results.

When you blog about something for SEO purposes, link to it immediately, with relevant text, from social media websites that do not utilize nofollow links.

Don’t wait for someone else to do it. First indexed by Google is often first ON Google

Austin Advertising Agency GSD&M “won” the renewal of the Air Force advertising contract. The agency was chosen over Chicago ad agency DraftFCB for a ten year, $372 million dollar contract.

I say won in quotes because the contract is actually $12.8 million per year less than the previous contract. To be fair though, $37 million a year is nothing to sneeze at. I buy lotto tickets anytime it goes over $20M!

Since others seem to be harping on all the contracts the Austin agency has lost recently (The Statesman, Austin Biz Journal and mediabistro have all piled on), I think to be fair I would point out that the agency has also recently landed some pretty decent work.

New Clients for the Austin Agency

Two new clients include World Market (ack! the url’s, make them stop!) and John Deere (If you call me, we could fix these URLs for like, 100 bucks . The Austin Business Journal also points out the agency is bidding on several other accounts, including LL Bean. That’s good news for Austin advertising folk, many who have been laid off because of the lost accounts.

I think with each of these clients the opportunity is there, just waiting to be realized. I know from 3 seconds looking at LL Bean (those url’s are gonna’ give me nightmares for a week) that absolutely nothing could hurt their SERPs. I’m pretty sure my yellow lab could create a more search engine friendly architecture.

Let’s hope the agency uses these new and renewed accounts as an opportunity to stretch into less traditional areas such as search engine optimization and social media marketing (no, not some avatar thing) but a true grass roots social media campaign.

We think it’s possible to be cool and have a positive ROI!