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Although you probably guessed as much, people who occasionally update their Facebook status or post something on Twitter represent a significant portion of the online community.  And today, Forrester pegged the exact portion at 33 percent.

Forrester’s been classifying online people as inactives, spectators, joiners, collectors, critics, and creators for quite some time, and its statistics regarding these groups have provided valuable about how the online landscape is changing.

The problem, as Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff noted earlier, is that these categories didn’t leave much room for normal Facebook and Twitter users.

So the conversationalists classification was introduced to represent Twitter users and Facebook users who make at least one status update per week.  Exactly 33 percent of online folks should fall into this grouping, and Bernoff added, "They’re 56% female, more than any other group in the ladder."

Also, "While they’re among the youngest of the groups, 70% are still 30 and up."

The above diagram pretty well shows the breakdown of other groups.  Now we just get to sit back and see how quickly people travel up the ladder as the social Web gains momentum.

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I probably don’t have to tell you that many businesses are still struggling with the concept of using social media. Many simply can’t find a good reason to use it at all, and many more find themselves using it but struggling to validate that use. They can’t find the ROI. They feel that too much time is being wasted. Basically, they’re just using social networks because they feel like they’re supposed to. They just want to keep up.

Many businesses are even banning social media from the workplace entirely. In fact, a great deal of our readers have expressed that they feel that social media doesn’t belong in the workplace because employees are there to "work," not "goof off."

Well, that may be the case, and perhaps social media doesn’t fit into your business at all, but considering your general business goals can help you decide whether or not there is a place for social media, and whether or not your employees can fit into that puzzle.

As social media enthusiast Chris Brogan told WebProNews in a recent interview, it’s time to get over the touristy part of social media and start getting down to business.

He says it’s not "Gee whiz, it’s cool" anymore. It’s "What are we gonna do with it?"

"Great you can type. Now what?" he says.

Here are some sample goals a business owner or manager might set for social media use. Once the goal is considered, then you can look at the tools that are out there and evaluate which ones will give you the best shot of achieving those goals.

20 Possible Goals

1. I’m a content provider, and I want to expand my reach.

2. I want my customers to be able to stay updated with news about my company.

3. I want to get to know my customers.

4. I want to promote my product.

5. I want to stay abreast of current news and trends.

6. I want to share my ideas with likeminded individuals.

7. I want to increase brand awareness.

8. I want to provide customer service and support easily.

9. I want to find a job.

10. I want to recruit.

11. I want people to like my brand.

12. I want to collaborate on business projects.

13. I want to directly sell a product.

14. I want to earn respect within my industry.

15. I am getting information overload, and I want to get organized.

16. I want to drive traffic to my site.

17. I want to attract advertisers and make money.

18. I want to get more involved with local prospects.

19. I want to get more involved with people on an international and global level.

20. I want to keep up with my competitors.

There are certainly more possible goals for business social media use out there. I’ve probably not even scratched the surface. What goals do you set for your social media efforts? Discuss here.

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We talk a lot about social media marketing – using social networks like Facebook and Twitter to market brands and drive traffic to sites. There is no question that these can be effective tools for doing both of these things.

As time goes on, it may become helpful or perhaps even necessary to use these tools for actual e-commerce. The common thinking behind social media marketing is that you don’t want to be too sales-pitchy in your conversations, and in some ways that is still very true. However, while social media is largely about conversations, it’s not only about conversations.

As time progresses, social media becomes a lot of things to a lot of people. We’ve reached the point where social networks are simply "where we hang out" online. People are not only having conversations. They’re sharing pictures. They’re playing games. They’re looking for information. They’re using social networks to help them make purchase decisions. Sometimes this is through conversation. Sometimes it’s as simple as being a fan of a brand’s Facebook page and receiving timely updates.

Has social media ever led you to an online purchase? Tell us about it.

Facebook has virtual currency, and is starting to open up possibilities for transactions for physical goods. Facebook Connect has just been made easier for webmasters to implement on their sites. That’s huge. As people spend much of their time on Facebook, they are pretty much relinquishing a certain amount of trust to the social network, whether they realize it or not (and whether they should be or not, but that’s another issue).

If your site is plugged into Facebook via Facebook Connect, and they can log in to your site to make purchases just by being logged into Facebook, they may not find themselves as concerned with security issues. Security concerns have long hindered the true potential of e-commerce, and as a result, plenty of trustworthy e-commerce sites have likely missed out on tons of sales, just because of the distrust of the method of purchasing in general.

Now I’m not saying that Facebook Connect is a sign of security. In fact, some might even suggest that it damages security, simply based on the fact that Facebook is often associated with security issues. I’m just saying, users are always signed in to Facebook anyway, and if they see your site is connected with Facebook, they may have no problems signing in with their Facebook info.

"Facebook Connect would allow you to go to a Website like Dell.com and authenticate yourself using your Facebook profile, allow your identity to be known and access your friends so you could spark up a chat," says Paul Dunay, Global Managing Dir. of Services, Social Marketing with Avaya in an interview with eMarketer. "So I could say, ‘Hey, Jeff, I’m looking at this new fancy laptop or this netbook. I heard you bought something. Would you recommend this to me?’

"So you could almost take your friends shopping with you. That is the potential with this example," he adds. "We’re in a period now where we’re all starting to get comfortable with Twitter and get comfortable with using Facebook and LinkedIn and a lot of these other tools, and now we’re about to expand." 

You want to stay relevant in real-time searches to stay current in people’s minds as well. It’s simple branding. That doesn’t mean you have to send out excessive tweets promoting your product. It is information that Twitterers often seek, and by simply discussing information, you’re brand is still visible, even if that information isn’t directly related to your brand. Read this for ways to optimize for real-time search.

Also be sure to watch this video where Sheila Dahlgren of Adobe gives some predictions for the e-commerce industry, which include behavioral targeting and personalization tactics.

What role do you think social media will play in e-commerce in the future? Share your thoughts.

Social Media’s rise in popularity has created some very real problems for the Internet and its users. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have seemingly opened the floodgates to security troubles, and over the past few weeks, this has been accentuated by a number of issues and studies.

As WebProNews recently reported, based on a study from Russell Herder and Ethos Business Law, time on social networking sites has increased by 73% in the past year. Without even taking security into consideration, 51% of executives surveyed said they fear social media could reduce employee productivity, while 49% said that using social media could damage a company’s reputation.

Now consider that social network users are more vulnerable to security risks. This is the theme of another study recently released by AVG and CMO Council. This indicates that most social network users fail to perform the following basic security measures on a regular basis:

- Changing passwords (64% infrequently or never)

- Adjusting privacy settings (57% infrequently or never)

- Informing their social network administrator (90% infrequently or never)

Here are some more stats from that one:

- 21% accept contact offerings from members they don’t recognize

- Over half let acquaintances or roommates access social networks on their machines

-  64% click on links offered by community members or contacts

-  26% share files within social networks

- Nearly 20% have experienced identity theft

- 47% have been victims of malware infections

- 55% have seen phishing attacks

A recent report from the Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID) found that 19% of hacking incidents occurred on social networks in the first half of this year. They were the most heavily-targeted vertical.

Here Come the Criminals

Criminals are using social networks to target people in the real world. A report from The Digital Criminal, found that 38% of users of sites like Facebook and Twitter have posted status updates saying when they are away for the weekend.

According to that same report, 23% of social media users have discussed vacation plans "wall-to-wall" outside the privacy of their own page and 17% have reported seeing people’s residential addresses posted on pages that can be seen by strangers.

Now this reflects social network users’ practices regarding their own personal lives. You have to wonder what that means for these same users’ professional (there is often a fine line there anyway) social media habits. Some other startling statistics from that report can be reviewed here.

Some Areas of Concern

Let’s just look at some recently discussed issues regarding security at Twitter and Facebook. You of course have the recent denial-of-service attacks on Twitter and Facebook. You’ve got the issue of accounts being hijacked. In fact, a giant hole in Twitter was discovered last week that Twitter has yet to even acknowledge on their blogs.

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Not only are evil-doers able to exploit social network users’ profiles, but a study from Worcester Polytechnic Institute found that social networks are even selling their users out by making personal information available to companies that track users’ browsing habits and allow them to link anonymous browsing habits to specific people. This gives some a general creepy feeling.

Of course there are always spam issues in the mix as well. Short URL spam was a big threat in August. Some URL-shortening services have even had to shut down as a result.

What Are the Networks doing?

It wouldn’t be fair to say that the social networks have ignored security issues. They haven’t. But are they doing enough? Twitter recently began trying to block links to malicious sites when users try to post them. Facebook has spent some time trying to improve the process of helping users gain back their hacked accounts.

But the threats are still out there, and they seem to be increasing much more rapidly than they’re being eliminated. These are not easy problems, and I have no doubt that the social networks take them very seriously, but until people can really feel comfortable about the medium, I think its potential is going to be hampered.

As long as threats remain so prevalent, so will reluctance. That goes for businesses and individuals alike. Yes, social media adoption continues to grow rapidly, but there are many still out there who do not see the point, at least at the price of security.

There is progress to be made, and it likely will be made. Once we get over that hump, this social web thing should really take off.