OK, it seems that about once a year the 'next great social media tool' emerges. This year, it seems to be Twitter. Last year, it was Facebook. A couple of years ago, LinkedIn was all the rage. That leads me to a couple of burning questions:

1. At what point is it acceptable to abandon or ignore a social media tool?
2. When does it make sense to include a new social media tool as part of your social marketing strategy?

It's clear that social media is here to stay as a tool for spreading the word about products and services. Facebook has worked hard over the last year trying to make the tool business-friendly. Twitter seems to be business-friendly right out of the gate. LinkedIn was built for business. Each of these tools can be a part of a marketing strategy, but you must first  determine which of the tools is right for your business. If you are currently on one of these sites, you should carefully review your participation in your company's pages or general activity on each of these sites to determine if they still warrant your attention. If the participation has declined, you might want to look at your promotion techniques. Are you promoting or posting to your page often? Are you 'tweeting' compelling content regularly? Another factor for decreased participation could be that your target market has moved on to another site... the 'hot, new' social media platform on the block. Social media users are far from brand loyal. If a new tool comes along that works better and is more interesting, they are really likely to switch the bulk of their attention to the new tool. They probably won't completely give up on the old tool (right away anyway), but they will spend less of their available time with it, thereby decreasing the possibility that they will pay any attention to your presence there. New social media tools seem to pop up all the time, but does it make sense to include them in your marketing strategy? Who are the people that are using the tool? Are they your target? If not, it might be OK for your family photos or posting about your trip to the grocery store, but it might not be right for your business.