Generation X, those who were born between 1961 and 1981, are a group of people marketers are trying to reach. Nate Elliott, Principal Analyst of Forrester Research told me what he thought effective social marketing strategies are for this generation. He mentioned that there are many social media channels that work. He said that every marketer should identify their objectives and goals first then work to identify the social media tools. When I asked what program he liked and thought was most effective, he brought up the TV show Mad Men and talked about a launch strategy used to engage viewers when the show was announced. We also discuss how marketers are feeling they are doing in some aspects of today’s social world and that is discouraging news–based on new research marketers flunked themselves–giving a grade of 4.5 out of 10.

Given the recession, and the proliferation of small and medium sized businesses, I spoke to Duncan Egan recently, the Senior Director of Marketing for Taleo, an on-demand talent management solution company. Egan knows tons about small and medium sized businesses and told me the social media tools he finds most effective are Ning, Twitter and Facebook. He tells me that Ning is great community site platform and discusses how to use Facebook and Twitter so they leverage each other.