Some 83% of search marketers will focus more time on content to drive search performance in 2013, according to research released Wednesday.

In the world of corporate marketing the most talked about article in recent weeks has been "The Rise of the Digital CMO" in the Harvard Business Review blog site, by Jake Sorofman, a research director at Gartner. The piece is designed to be provocative -- and it does just that from its very first sentence: "Fact: When it comes to marketing spending, analog still outstrips digital by a factor of three to one." There's no disputing hard numbers, but you can argue their context. The reality is that, seven and eight figure marketing budgets aren't the appropriate measurement when thinking about digital marketing. Billboards and airplane advertorials may still have their place in the marketing mix, but the innovative approaches employed by both the most progressive enterprises, large and small, prove that measuring a solid earned media strategy is not done exclusively through the traditional marketing budget.

As Facebook Graph Search evolves and marketers begin to come to grips with the opportunities provided from the social graph, it becomes clear that a combination of both search and social media tactics are required if brands aim to improve visibility in the graph search engine results. Today, I would like to focus on how you can utilize SEO and social sharing best practices to both optimize your Facebook page and foster engagement.

Brands are looking beyond social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ to more niche sites such as Pinterest, which puts a big emphasis on visuals. Another niche social player worth exploring is question-and-answer site Quora. Quora ranks questions and answers by user engagement. Social media metrics on this platform center around the number of followers, views, votes and shares each question has. For example, in 2012 the most popular question on Quora was, "What are the best stories about people randomly meeting Steve Jobs?" with the answers providing a multitude of insight and shared experiences on the technology pioneer. Now let's look a little deeper at how brands and businesses use Quora.

When it comes to social media, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ dominate the conversation. After all, they have large numbers of users and are still growing, thanks in part to innovations on each platform. However, for brands – especially those in sectors such as retail – it's also important to evaluate other social media platforms for possible inclusion in search and social media strategies. Your choice(s) of social media platforms depends on your business model, the profile of target audience, and industry. One social media platform brands should explore is Pinterest. Here are the latest statistics, best practices, and some tactical strategies for one of the hottest and fastest-growing platforms.