The announcement that Goldman Sachs invested $500 million in Facebook, giving it a market valuation of $50 billion sent ripples across the media.  With this deal including Goldman helping Facebook to raise an additional $1.5 billion, and noting that Facebook has raised $800 million over five rounds of funding.  it is official that social networking is big business that is only getting bigger.

What this means to any user is that their services are only going to get more addictive and beneficial.  What this means to any business owner is that you now have a place where increasing numbers of individuals and groups of people potentially interested in your products and services are actively engaging.

This isn't news to everyone, but this benchmark clearly states the markets confidence in the future profitability of Facebook, and therefore in social media marketing.  This announcement had additional gravity that reflects the shift from old media to new media's prominence in that it came on the heels of the New York Times losing it's slot on the S&P 500 to Netflix.