At The Ivy Group, we like talking "integration", as in Integrated Marketing Communications or IMC--the strategic coordination of promotional methods (public relations, advertising and sales promotion) to create successful marketing programs. And social media is all about integration. Otherwise, why would Twitter and Facebook have us sync posts and tweets across platforms? Because it's convenient? Well, perhaps...

I bring up social media integration because of a study recently conducted by AOL and Nielsen on content sharing via the Internet. The study found that behind e-mail communications, nearly a third of Internet users choose to share content through social networking. But here's the real gem: among this social media cohort, 99 percent are logged in to multiple social networks. For those connected to Facebook and Twitter, chances are they're users of FourSquare, LinkedIn and YouTube.

With over 500 million members, Facebook is undeniably the most popular social media platform. Most who are weary of incorporating social technology in their business practices might only test the waters with Facebook; if your business has a Facebook page, that's one step in the right direction. But why not branch out if you've got information to share? To start, Twitter soars high above it in content-sharing at 42 percent versus Facebook's 12 percent.

Once you're on a roll, you can begin to advertise your social media presence by including links to your social profiles in employee e-mail signatures, platform icons in media buys and badges on the company's website home page. The outcome? A coordinated effort in producing maximum exposure for your brand.

Social media integration results in a consistent interactive branding experience for visitors to engage in and, most often, projects brand legitimacy.

Think your company or organization could benefit from these efforts? With the proper integration strategy, it can! (Here comes the sales pitch…) Social media is just one dimension of The Ivy Group's communications services. Check out our full list of services.