As mentioned previously, social media and behavioral targeting are not mutually exclusive. Indeed, social media should be a significant component of the range of behaviors catalogued by behavioral targeting vendors. Social activities are part of the universe of networks such as Tacoda and Revenue Science, but they are one part of the larger tapestry that inform patterns of consumer behavior.

There are companies, such as Lotame, that understand the need to overlay behavioral attributes and social media activities to create a compelling marketing solution. Traditional behavioral targeting tends to track passive consumption of media -- it's based on what consumers are looking at. A more comprehensive behavioral targeting solution will need to gather new types of data sets that track participation, engagement and involvement in ways that are unique to social media.

Similarly, the metrics used to evaluate success will need to evolve. For years now, the industry has been clamoring for better metrics than clickthrough and conversion rates. At the same time, engagement metrics are trumpeted as more relevant to marketers. The unique advertising environment of social media means marketers need to gauge success based on consumer intensity, interest level and duration, particularly as ads become richer.