... nothing, if you are Facebook.

According to Comscore via TechCruch, Facebook drew 222 million unique pageviews last month. Even more impressive, that translates to 80 billion pageviews and 22% of total Internet traffic. Yes, more than 1 in 5 internet users worldwide have been to Facebook. Still, Facebook has no real way to monetize that number... they just can't make money.

So, our eyes turn to MySpace. The much-maligned networker's traffic has held steady at approximately 100 million unique pagviews per month. And although it is still the nation's largest social network, it trails Facebook worldwide by about 100 million users. But, with the backing of the mighty News Corp, and its flexible ad streams, it outearns its more popular rival considerably. In a comment to TechCrunch, they said:

We are laser focused on building a sustainable global business which we measure by profits and revenue - not just eyeballs. In a tough economic climate, our international revenue is up 35 percent year over year and we continue to focus on those markets with the strong monetization opportunities. Additionally, MySpace continues to dominate the U.S. market–where the bulk of online advertising revenues reside–both in terms of monetization and user engagement with more than 76 million unique users and a 40% spike in engagement year over year.

Looks like MySpace is still ahead where it counts. With headlines like these, how can MySpace not make money?

Mom indicted in MySpace suicide case
Myspace murder trial turns graphic 
Man gets three months in MySpace sex case

(credit: ComScore)

CNET News staffer and social media commentator Caroline McCarthy had some interesting insight into “social media’s hidden bubble” this week. “As the recession rapidly sucks the momentum out of Web 2.0's heyday,” she writes, “with it may go one of the era's most defining terms: the job title ‘social media expert.’”

I certainly welcome a thinning of the social media expert herd, if not the outright extinction. Social media expert has become a meaningless title, as the only qualification one seemingly needs for the label is a Twitter account and Facebook profile.”

Judging from Caroline’s anecdote, that is enough to fool some companies.

One digital-strategies czar at a small media company told CNET News that a while back, before she was brought on board, her employer had enlisted a freelance "social media expert" to give the company a presence on Web 2.0's most buzzworthy communities. It was a disaster, she said. The consultant charged $200 an hour for what was effectively a bunch of Facebook fan pages and a Twitter account that most full-time staff wasn't particularly sure how to use. The final bill tallied almost $40,000.

Of course, the web is filled with hundreds of examples of companies using Facebook and Twitter effectively to get their message out to the masses. However, success takes an engaging product and a healthy respect for the community. After all, authenticity in the Web 2.0 world is and always will be key (see the migration of users from Friendster to MySpace to Facebook, as I commented here).”

There is also that little consideration if the product is geared toward the 2.0 world, as one astute observer opined:

Even now I read blogs on respected websites giving advise (sic) on how to make the most of social networking without any consideration for whether a company's market is even actually present on those social networks, let alone whether the effort helps achieve high level marketing goals.

I fear that social media experts are the new SEO experts, who, in turn, were the new snake oil salesmen...