By the time you read this article, every statistic cited below will already be obsolete. That’s how fast the evolving world of social media and online communities is changing. For example, Facebook, the free-access social networking website, now tops 225 million users and is growing at the rate of approximately 1 million new users per day. Statistics just released by comScore Media Metrix on Twitter traffic reveals visitor growth through this micro-blog has doubled in less than one year. Surprisingly, 45-to-54-year-olds are the top “Tweet” demographic and 25-to-34-year-olds follow closely behind in second.

So what is ahead? Over the past year, there has been a rapid shift in social distribution online. According to Michael Arrington, founder and co-editor of Techcrunch, a leading weblog dedicated to profiling and examining the commercial and/or cultural impact on new media, “There appears to be a new distribution model which is emerging, one which is based on people’s ability to publicly syndicate and distribute messages — aka “content” — in a transparent and open manner.”

Essentially, this has been a part of the Internet since day one, yet now it’s emerging in a different form. It’s not pages that are important. Instead, it is streams that drive user participation. The growth of new (and still to be discovered) platforms will open up vast, new and exciting applications and engagement channels in the months and years ahead.

The enormous appeal (and irritant to some) of a service like Twitter is that people are essentially thinking out loud. By revealing our thoughts in a warm, open, and voluntary manner through blogs, micro-blogs (such as Twitter), and other social media platforms, we allow our ideas and lives to be indexed and shared across the entire Web.

Yet as exciting and groundbreaking as services like Twitter and others are, it is still a very crude and clumsy process compared with what is coming. In the near future, speech recognition software will pick out keywords and cross-reference to Wikipedia, news clippings, video downloads, as well as a cornucopia of other data, tools, and tech-toys. Once again, the Internet is shifting before our eyes. Information is increasingly being distributed and presented in real-time streams instead of dedicated and static Web pages. This shift is palpable, even if it is only in its early stages.

Traffic occurs in bursts, depending on what people are paying attention to at any given second across a variety of platforms. Someone might notice an obscure blog post on Twitter, where it starts spreading, then moves to FriendFeed and Facebook. From there, this groundswell is passed forward to desktop stream readers such as Tweetdeck or Seesmic. Before the blink of an eye, a hundred thousand people are reading that same article.

Malcolm Gladwell, in his “must-read” millennial study of human behavioral patterns, The Tipping Point, (Little Brown, 2000), writes, “Simply finding and reaching those few special people who hold so much social power, we can share the course of social epidemics — look at the world around us — and with the slightest push, in the right place, it can be tipped.”

This long-standing human phenomenon certainly holds true in both “old-school” offline channels and emerging “new-school” online worlds.

Nevertheless, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) is as old as the history of mankind. Dating back to prehistoric times, people have always been sharing information, making recommendations, and passing along insights to others. Opinion leaders, taste makers, trend setters, and brand evangelists have been influencing decisions since the beginning of mankind. But it has only been within the past 15 years that this powerful medium has transitioned from its original painstakingly slow 1:1 methodology to warp-speed global fast delivery. Reaching “one-to-many,” is here to stay.

In a recent research study from eMarketer, Senior Analyst Debra Aho Williamson stated that, in the future, “Social media marketing will be less media and more marketing.” Brands and their marketing partners now realize the critical importance of a two-way conversation with consumers. People are not shy about posting their comments, opinions, and ideas — both good and bad — in communities where theirs voice are heard.

Savvy marketers must create dynamic (and open) social media engagements with these consumers. This requires a comprehensive full circle of connection. Both listening and outreach are needed, functioning side by side. Web-monitoring technology provide the “mapping strategy” to identify key-influencers. From there, honest/open/candid human dialogue is necessary.

Trust is everything within social media networks and platforms. So how do stress-ridden CMOs and their marketing teams handle “all these complicated moving parts?” This is a daunting challenge, as marketing budgets are being slashed in these economically challenging times and staff reductions are putting more pressure on delivery with increasingly limited internal resources.

Listed below are “10 Tips to Successful Social Media Marketing Strategies” for you and your team to consider. These include industry best-practices that are time-tested and proven to succeed:

1) Do Your Homework.

Companies that wish to engage successfully in social media should first figure out what online communities are all about. “Play in the sandbox before you start throwing in toys.” Learn to navigate the waters. Don’t get in too early and find yourself over your head.

2) Be polite.

Each community and site has its own customs and culture, which companies need to accept. What works in MySpace is not necessarily acceptable on Facebook. There is a subtle art and science to knowing how to strike the proper balance between intimacy and intrusiveness in each of the many social-media engagement channels.

3) Test, test, test.

Engagement and activation strategies should be constantly tested, adjusted, and evaluated. Only after achieving the proper tone, approach, and style, should your campaign expand. Again, it is the subtle art and science to participation. In fact, your social media marketing strategy may change over the course of a successful campaign, based on community feedback and response.

4) Acknowledge cultural differences.

Don’t assume all communities are the same. Each blog, forum, video-sharing site, social network, message board, and post has its own values, style, protocol, and nuances. Don’t make any “one-size-fits-all” assumptions. The best way to evaluate the uniqueness of each communities is to (a) register properly and respect the protocol and regulations of the community; (b) become a trusted community member; and (c) cautiously proceed with your messages, when accepted, and deploy your call-to-action delivery strategy, if community members are receptive.

5) Find your evangelists.

Before you can energize online key-influencers and create a dynamic “buzz factor” with community brand evangelists, you must locate these taste-makers where they “live,” “work,” “play,” and “communicate” online. It’s imperative to genuinely connect with them. Remember Tipping Point and Gladwell’s insights! Grasp a clear picture of who you are trying to reach before you engage.

6) Provide exclusive access, special privileges & valuable information currency.

Evangelists expect to be courted in return for their loyalty. It’s not enough just to produce a great product or service. Show loyal consumers you care by giving them special access to your company, such as an advance look at new products and “insider” information. Ask their honest advice on marketing strategies. Offer a special sweepstakes or other compelling reasons to pass-forward your critical messages and materials to their colleagues, friends and family. Invite them to participate! You will be impressed with the results.

7) Be open.

Be 100% transparent, open, and genuine. It’s imperative to provide full disclosure. Nobody wants a shill or spammer to waste their time. Follow the code of ethics guidelines of the Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association (www.womma.org) and engage using industry best-practices. Enter the conversation clearly stating exactly who you represent (total transparency) and what you wish to accomplish. Genuinely disclose your goals clearly. Also, come prepared for the feedback (the best and worst). When reaching out to kids, if your brand is targeted for children, be completely COPPA-compliant (Children’s Online Privacy Protection) with your target audience, their parents, educators, and their community. Follow all the new FTC guidelines. Make certain your site list is scrubbed and doesn’t contain any inappropriate materials, links, etc. One false move may generate a landslide of negative outrage against you, your brand and reputation.

8 ) It’s a two-way dialogue.

It’s dynamic, yet this forum can be a double-edged-sword. You must create credibility for the core values of your conversation. Keep it real. Remember, the people you are reaching online have extremely low tolerance for canned one-way “brand-speak.”

9) Share.

Share within social media communities your impressive digital assets (your important “content”). These materials might include special “insider” information, product insights, satisfied customer testimonials, unique landing pages, widgets, sweepstakes, video clips, contests, prizes, FAQ, etc. Give your online brand evangelists “Something to talk about!” Remember, emotional currency generates true excitement, real passion, and priceless pass-along dynamics. Excite them! This is your opportunity to build impressive viral results and establish genuine brand loyalists.

10) Track and monitor everything.

Select the most impactful engagement platforms, track impressions, generate a clear ROI, capture screen-grabs, determine which Twitter or Facebook strategy is right for you. Sounds complicated and fraught with land mines? It can be, if this is not your full-time focus.

What if you are not 100% dedicated to this integrated digital approach? Consider hiring a professional social-influencer marketing group that specializes exclusively in these constantly changing channels and emerging technologies. Make sure this group has the highly-specialized tools, resources, track-record, and experience to create a successful activation initiative for you and your brand.

Ask the right questions. Determine if they share the same passion and understanding of your brand as you do. Ask if they will:

• Track every conversation
• Monitor the response
• Engage “the right way”
• Assemble the best engagement platforms (and sites) that you will pre-approach before campaign launch
• Create impressive conversational-marketing scripts that are on-point
• Stir passion within targeted communities
• Provide actionable feedback
• Spot-trends in community and activation
• Alert you to any backlash or negative opinions
• Measure and analyze every aspect of the project — including click-through rates, pass-along conversion, sentiment, tonality, consumer-generated-media monitoring, brand influencer index as well as success in the seamless delivery of your important digital assets

The most effective (and infectious) social media influence and marketing campaigns have powerful emotional triggers that connect directly to the consumer. If you can’t excite your audience, who will? Know your product; speak from the heart. Now is the time for true brand storytelling.