involving your site in schemes where your content is artificially promoted to the top of these services.

Well, Google’s loosing their theory of what’s appreciated by the crowd should be genuine? Because there are now plenty of paid and exchange-based digg (just example!) voting programs, and they are getting smarter and smarter.

Since there are no faultless way to find out if the Page made it to big social media exposure by paying for it. Google is no longer value Social Media links? I think they have smarter approach to that.
I can only assume that if they see a Page that appears to be on every major social media website, and it has:

• Commercial matter of a Page
• Little links from major directories
• Small PageRank compared to other pages in the same category
• Social Media exposure (all at once or randomly over time)
• The domain was yet given major exposure @ The Internet (backlinks)

Then they slap those websites. So the best way to get most out of social media links – is to act smooth. Expose your Site/Page on different Social Media services with a time delay.

Social media is great for:

• Connecting with your customers/your prospects
• Building another channel for communication, branding & messaging
• Appealing to early adopters

Search market gives you a lot more in comparison:

• Answer a direct need precisely when it’s requested in a scalable fashion
• Gain visibility from virtually all Internet users with an interest in your brand/product/sector/content at once

And if you’re ignoring other important fundamentals of online marketing, like:

• Building a website with a unique value proposition
• Creating great useful content that people want, content is king
• Road to effective email marketing
• Finding ways to scalably acquire new users & retain existing ones
• Leveraging conversion funnels & conversion testing
• PPC

You should probably consider those marketing points before ones that are obtainable thru social media. Don’t get me wrong, I really love social media, there is a great way to build email lists (FaceBook Groups) and share experience with people (forums) and getting the experience in return!