At a recent social media conference held by the Business Development Institute in New York City, McDonalds presented their own insights on the lessons learned from social media initiatives that they have engaged in. One of the first, and most basic steps, is to determine which social communities to engage since different regions of the world are drawn to different social communities. As you can see by this great world social media map, global users have different loyalties depending on their region.

For any global corporation, like McDonald’s, the first challenge is to make sure they they are speaking on the right social media platform for each country or region they are engaging. In the United States, it is Twitter and Facebook, but across the globe there are many challengers gaining steam.

For smaller corporations and businesses, it is a good idea to even consider second-tier communities – not just the headliners like Facebook. Why? Because these other communities can often maintain an active and reasonably large community of potential consumers – and some of these communities are aggressively offering advertising incentives and cross-promotional opportunities to get the attention of potential advertisers.

For instance, we were recently approached by “Tagged” regarding advertising in their social community for a major brand, for which we currently operate a Fan Page community of 100K+ users. The company representative, in his own words, stated that “Tagged is the third largest social community in the world that you have never heard of.” He was also very open to assisting in cross-promotion for the current Facebook Fan Page presence to create a win/win scenario that would increase reach across both platforms. This is just one example of how these sub-communities can help smaller businesses and corporations leverage reach and advertising dollars. But buyer beware: make sure, of course, that your target demo is drawn to these specific communities.

If you are willing to devote time and effort into some worthwhile research, you may find that you can reach a comparably large target in a community other than Facebook – where your advertising dollars can go farther.

Here is a list of 38 social communities that you may or may not have heard of:

bebo.com – Countries: United Kingdom, United States, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand

blackplanet.com – Countries: United States, Canada, Nigeria, India, Germany

tagged.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Indonesia, Mexico

imeem.com – Countries: United States, Thailand, Philippines, South Korea, Japan

hi5.com – Countries: Mexico, Thailand, Portugal, Peru, United States

orkut.com – Countries: India, Brazil, United States, Japan, Pakistan

ning.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy

buzznet.com – Countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil, France

multiply.com – Countries: Indonesia, United States, Philippines, Thailand, India

cyworld.com – Countries: South Korea, United States, Japan, Canada, Thailand

netlog.com – Countries: Italy, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Turkey

livejournal.com – Countries: Russia, United States, Ukraine, China, Singapore

ikihow.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia

squidoo.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada

flixster.com – Countries: United States, Indonesia, India, Philippines, Mexico

sonico.com – Countries: Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela

xanga.com – Countries: Hong Kong, United States, India, United Kingdom, Singapore

skyrock.com – Countries: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Algeria, Morocco

cafemom.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany

fastpitchnetworking.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Australia, Pakistan

propeller.com – Countries: United States, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, United Kingdom

fotolog.com – Countries: Argentina, Spain, Chile, Mexico, Brazil

current.com – Countries: United States, India, Pakistan, United Kingdom, Italy

revver.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Turkey

care2.com – Countries: United States, India, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia

ryze.com – Countries: India, United States, Australia, United Kingdom, Pakistan

mixx.com – Countries: India, United States, Pakistan, Indonesia, United Kingdom

badoo.com – Countries: Italy, Spain, France, Mexico, Venezuela

tribe.net – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Canada, Germany

broadcaster.com – Countries: China, United States, India, South Korea, United Kingdom

xing.com – Countries: Germany, Austria, Turkey, Switzerland, United States

grono.net – Countries: Poland, China, United Kingdom

sphinn.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada

viddler.com – Countries: United States, United Kingdom, India, Italy, Germany

slashdot.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada

newsvine.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, Pakistan, Germany

thisnext.com – Countries: United States, India, United Kingdom, China, Canada

dealigg.com – Countries: United States, India, China, Indonesia

Have you seen any other social communities that you can share?

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