Sure, you might "get" that social media isn't just a passing fad and that it can actually help improve your business. But you still might be underestimating its power and potential.

Our top inbound marketing article of the past week points out that social media engagement isn't exactly as easy as it seems.

1. 5 Not-So-Easy Steps to Managing Your Brand Online

Author: Brian Solis of BrianSolis.com

Social media is deceptive, says Brian Solis in this week's top article. At first glance, it may seem somewhat simple to manage your brand online . Yet as social media matures, businesses must do so along with it.

Brian therefore highlights and expands upon the following five next-level steps to help businesses manage and ultimately define their brand online: listen and learn, react to and lead conversations, divide and conquer, adapt, and design metrics into campaigns and measure performance .

Marketing Takeaway: Adapt to the maturing nature of social media by taking your involvement to the next level.

2. 15 Excellent Corporate Blogs to Learn From

Author: Erica Swallow on Mashable

In theory, the daily task of writing a blog article is relatively simple. Still, any blogger knows that creating and maintaining a smoothly running blog is no piece of cake.

This Mashable article offers a list of 15 notable corporate blogs that blogging businesses can learn from and points out what it is about them that makes them so admirable. Company blogs that make the list include those of Dell, PlayStation, BBC, Flickr, eBay and Google.

Marketing Takeaway: Learn by example.

3. How to Rescue Poorly Converting Websites

Author: Kim Krause Berg on Search Engine Land

While she recognizes that a poorly converting website takes time to completely turn around, Kim's article emphasizes three areas that site owners can focus on to start improving website conversion relatively easily and quickly: usability, search engine optimization and information architecture. 

Some of Kim's suggestions for improvement include making sure critical elements appear in the top third of your home page, creating a keyword-rich text tagline that contains your site’s unique selling proposition, and building global navigation that offers directions to groupings of pages.

Marketing Takeaway: Don't forget about low-hanging fruit that can help improve your site's conversion ability.

4. The Science and Art of Your Facebook Posting Strategy

Author: Jay Ehret of The Marketing Spot

I'm sure you've heard it before. Creating a Facebook page is only half the battle. It's what you actually do with it that makes it (or doesn't make it) effective for your business.

Jay's article -- which describes a successful Facebook posting strategy as an art and a science -- can help you understand exactly what, when and how frequently you should be posting to your Facebook page. Some of his suggestions include asking questions, making important announcements, making special offers and taking advantage of the Facebook Insights tool to test how your posts are performing.

Marketing Takeaway: Spend some time developing and experimenting with your Facebook presence to determine the best strategy for your business.

5. How to Write a Successful Corporate Newsletter

Author: Kevin Gibbons of Econsultancy Blog

Creating a corporate newsletter can be just as time-consuming and challenging as maintaining a corporate blog. While Kevin first talks about the fact that there are many different stages at which a newsletter can fail (and that it's important to understand exactly where that is in your own case), he mainly discusses the elements that make up a successful newsletter. These ingredients are:

1. Give readers news.
2. Test your message .
3. Be realistic.
4. Target your readers.
5. Make it easy to opt out.
6. Stay clean.

Marketing Takeaway: Think strategically about your corporate newsletter, and put effort into testing various tactics to optimize its performance.

Video: How to Use Social Media to Manage Your Company Brand Online

Learn how to use social media to manage your company brand. Download the free video and learn how to manage your company brand effectively using social media.