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With all the excitement over the pending Facebook IPO, Paddy Hirsch takes a step back to explain exactly what an IPO is. And as only he can, he turns to some interesting characters to explain why companies turn to offering shares to the public. In this case, he uses the three little pigs:

There may be new apps and new gadgets to facilitate our engagement with one another and with retailers and other companies, but surely social media will only become a bigger part of our daily lives this year. It will be interesting to watch how companies push new ways of interacting, and what trends develop. At Harvard Business Review , David Armano makes his predictions. Armano is executive vice president of the interactive arm of global communications for Edelman Digital, and he predicts that some social media activities that started in 2010 or 2011 will take off in 2012. Namely: Convergence Emergence. The Cult of Influence. Gamification Nation. Social Sharing. Social Television. The Micro Economy. Read Armano's descriptions for these trends here . And then weigh in, either by offering up your comments , or in discussions with your peers/classmates. What has to happen for these activities to become meaningful trends? What social media trends do you anticipate being a big part of commerce in 2012?

Lisa Arthur is concerned that corporations are slacking off when it comes to using social media tools for reaching out to customers. At Forbes , Arthur--Chief Marketing Officer for Aprimo --shares some findings from a recent UMASS-Dartmouth survey of businesses that show very little increase in the use of Twitter, Facebook, and blogs by Fortune 500 companies. For starters, keep in mind that UMass-Dartmouth has conducted longitudinal studies on four major sectors of the US economy –the Fortune 500, Inc. 500, charities, and higher education –for the past four years. In every one of those years, the F500 has lagged behind the others in adoption of social media. (For example, last year, 71 percent of the Inc. 500 was on Facebook, as was a whopping 98 percent of the higher ed institutions and 97 percent of the charities studied. Compare that to the 56 percent of F500 companies that had Facebook pages in 2010.) Perhaps corporate silos are getting in the way? “Ownership” of social media can get sticky, and teams bogged down by border wars and artificial boundaries may find it difficult to innovate. Retrenchment could also be a factor, I suppose. And, I know that integrating social media and proving ROI remain significant challenges for many–although marketing automation technology continues to mature towards sophisticated and elegant solutions. While I recognize these obstacles, I still must admit that I’m disappointed in these survey results. Why? Because now is not the time for complacency. It’s not the time for companies to lose focus. Empowered consumers are here, and they’re here to stay. We’re just beginning to tap into the potential of strategies like intelligent 1:1 marketing, and that means marketers must continue to find ways to engage with their customers and prospects online in more personalized ways. To be clear, the survey does not show use of social media going down. Rather, firms of all sizes adopted these tools more and more over the last few years. The real question is whether those companies that have not adopted social media have actively chosen not to because they have concluded their use does not provide the right return on investment. Read Are Corporations Giving Up on Social Media? here .

A lot of marketers and brand managers are trying to figure out how Google+ fits into their social media outreach strategies, as consumers try to figure out whether they need to migrate from Facebook to Google + . We confess, we haven't quite figured the whole Google+ thing out ourselves, but we found this video from Epipheo Studios helpful. It is very bullish on Google+, but still quite a good explainer: We also recommend Epipheo's video on How the Internet is Changing Advertising . It is a couple of years old now, but still largely relevant.

In what we might simply term the power of G, Google's Larry Page says the Google+ social networking site has reached 10 million users in 2 weeks. And those users are sharing 1 billion items per day. That didn't take long. While it is of course too early to say what the impact of activity is for brands, but marketers are now trying to figure out how to best operate in Google+. We expect they will apply lessons learned from other online spaces, Facebook and Twitter in particular. AdAge 's Irina Slutsky writes about the potential opportunities that Google+ may provide. And the big advantage comes with the data Google already has on consumer behavior. Slutsky writes: Building out brands on Facebook has turned into big business -- costing up to tens of thousands of dollars a month -- and if Google has its way, companies such as Buddy Media, Vitrue, Blinq MEdia, WildFire, 22squared and many others could be adding Google+ optimization to their offerings. "We're seeing Google+ as a strong competitor in social media from an advertising opportunity," said David Williams, CEO of Blinq Media. "The brand pages need to roll out, an ad model needs to develop, and we want to take advantage of all Google+ has to offer." Mr. Williams, who works with brands including Baskin Robbins and Mentos, says that because Google has expertise in search, what has always been true for Google and Facebook remains: While Facebook knows who you are, Google knows what you want. That difference could be a major advantage when it comes to advertising. "Facebook has interest data, but not intent data," Mr. Williams said. "Google will have a tremendous amount of intent data that could allow them to create a better ad model for social than Facebook -- a very, very powerful ad model." Read Marketers Intrigued by Google+ but Questions Abound here .

Can social media save the video star? Or at least bring appointment television programming back? eMarketer reports that the building in elements to programs that motivate the use of social media sites like Twitter and Facebook is having a positive impact on live television viewing: Viewers are using Facebook and Twitter to comment about shows before, during and after they air. Television networks, grappling with the fragmentation of their audience, are experimenting with mobile apps, Twitter promotions and branded social networks in an effort to bring viewers back together. And a variety of other stakeholders are getting in on the social action as well. “Experimentation still rules the day,” said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer principal analyst and author of the new report, “Socializing the TV Experience.” “There is a great deal of uncertainty about the paths that social media and TV will take, and the extent to which they will converge over time.” Take a look at the Twitter activity connected to Survivor during 2011 episodes, when the producers began to encourage program talent to live tweet during broadcasts: Read Social Media Brings New Engagement to TV here .

Is it better to have more people paying attention to your work or fewer people who are more loyal? Musicians, companies, and brands of all sorts are forced to confront this question when it comes to social media outreach. eMarketer notes that an increase in overall audience--or followers--on Facebook appears to bring with it a decrease in followers' engagement: So does this mean that brands need to try to connect with fewer people? Of course not. But it does point to the need for a coherent strategy that is flexible and expandable enough to allow for continues engagement as the audience grows. From eMarketer: There are many posting strategies brands can pursue to boost engagement on pages as the number of fans increases, however. Research from Buddy Media found that tweaking the length, timing and wording of posts could raise engagement. In addition, the research from Visibli points to how brands should space out their posts. Half of all “likes” happen within 1 hour and 20 minutes of posting, and 70% happen within 4 hours. “Likes” taper off over time, until about 95% are received within 22 hours. Read Can Brands Maintain Engagement on Facebook? here .

A couple of years ago, Facebook was trying to make sure it had revenue. That's not a problem anymore, as advertising has been bringing more and more money in. Now Facebook is working on expanding revenue streams, and competing with Groupon in the process . But to get a picture of how big advertising has become, and how much it dominates Fecebook's revenue, take a look at this chart from eMarketer : Read more from eMarketer here .