What are the standard lines run out about Facebook these days by everyone making the argument that it is THE place to be? Well, there are about 1 billion people on it is one. It’s where people stay in touch is another. You can make the rest of the list yourself.

Well, one thing that anyone interested in how well a company will perform over the long term is to look at the next generation of users and see what their opinions of the product are. If what Facebook reported in their annual 10-K report (hat tip to Business Insider), there might be trouble on the horizon

Social media is maturing in many ways. Much of that maturity is being seen in how marketers look at each individual social media channel and make a decision aout whether they need to be there or not. After all, if your customers are not there why do you need to be? (Oh yea, that’s right because your local social media guru said you HAVE to be there or you’re not cool).

The Pew Research Center has put out some fascinating findings about the nature of Twitter responses to events versus the actual public opinion of the event. PLEASE NOTE: What you are about to read is research. It’s not a political position or anything else, it’s reporting of the facts. If you don’t agree take it up with Pew not us.

Essentially Pew found that Twitter’s interpretation of events is significantly skewed to a liberal point of view and is often not fully representative of general public opinion. An example from the report shows

This should come as little surprise since Twitter has a much greater concentration of users in urban areas which traditionally are more liberal in their social views. It also tends to skew younger which will serve a more liberal base. That’s not a social media phenomenon folks, it’s been that way forever.

Remember the Roman Empire? It was the most influential force in the world. The place everyone wanted to be. The center of all news, art, commerce. Then it wasn’t (see “fall of the Roman Empire“). It was kind of like MySpace – burning bright, then burned out.

Do you think the same might happen to Twitter? To Facebook?

A new survey from Weber Shandwick says it could be so. They questioned 2,000 North American women and found this startling fact:

Nearly four in 10 North American women (38 percent) have decreased or stopped their usage of one or more social networks during the past six months.

Why did they step away?

• 59% “Just not interested/lost interest”
• 35% “no time/too busy”

Finding new leads is an integral part of running any business to business business. You can direct mail everyone on a purchased, targeted list, network at a trade show, cold call every business in town . . .

Or you can build a comprehensive website and active social media accounts, then wait for the leads to come to you. Might sound crazy, but according to DemandGen 90% of business buyers say when they’re ready to buy, they’ll find you. 78% of those people will start their search on the web. 50% will turn to social media and peer review sites.

Which “leads” us to today’s topic — which social media site is better for generating quality leads? My guess would have been LinkedIn since it’s so squarely aimed at the business to business community. I would have been wrong. Quoting a study from Optify, eMarketer’s chart shows a different story.