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SOCIAL MEDIA - We've seen it before. Bebo, Myspace, Faceparty, Friends Reunited, LiveJournal... well they're all still going in one form or another, but it is now long since the time these sites formed the core of social media sites. Facebook currently remains the world's most popular site, but is it's bubble beginning to burst?

Many have argued for some time that Facebook is no more special than other forms of social media and it too will likely get left behind sooner or later. Currently in the shadows there is Google+, which is being gradually opened up to new members and looks set to again reinvent our whole approach to social media over the coming months.

Facebook have recently announced they are pushing through the 'archiving' of its old format 'Groups' during this summer. It is not even a year since the new format groups first appeared on Facebook, and they were met with disappointment by marketeers and the business community at the way the new groups have dropped support for so many functions that were useful to promotion.

The alternative provided, Pages, do not allow the same level of engagement previously experienced with old groups. What Pages do have is also getting rapidly diluted by the ever increasing volume of them for consumers, and also by new helpful functions such as messages being placed by default in a pseudo spam folder (aka 'other').

The archiving of the old groups has come with very little warning and these groups, left unconverted by those that had got them well established, are now potentially being rendered useless by stripping them of their members. This means businesses and marketeers soon won't even have the option to advise their groups' members that they need to move to a new group, or indeed where it is.

Whilst Facebook have always stated, since the launch of New Groups in 2010, that these are not intended for business (possibly more akin to the new Circles introduced on Google+) - they have not allowed conversion of groups into pages. This means there is no way to port over the membership of groups, which in some cases is very substantial.

This move by Facebook may cause another small knock to business and consumer confidence in the social media site, and at a time when their biggest potential rival is in the launch process of their site.

There is no doubt we will be continuing to use Facebook for some time yet, but it does underline the point that businesses should not over invest in any one form of social media. Campaigns and promotions to attract followers can be time consuming and sometimes expensive - something that should be very carefully considered when we ourselves have no control over what happens on any of these sites tomorrow.

Engagement in social media is essential as part of most business marketing strategies, however be aware of its potential pitfalls and make sure you have a proper plan in place.