Back in 1992, James Carville, political strategist, successfully navigated Bill Clinton to the White House with a manical focus encapsulated in the now famous quip: "it's the economy, stupid!"  Carville used that simple phrase as the litmus test for all his strategies.

I thought about that mantra last night listening to Steve Rubel, of Edelman Digital presenting at Mashable's Nextup:NYC Social Media Marketing 101 event.

Steve outlined 5 Digital Trends and their implications for marketers using social media but it was his comment "less is the new more" that resonated:  "Gorging on media," he noted, "is out.  Selective ignorance and friends as quality filters are in." Therefore, Rubel argued, social media needs to provide utility to gain adoption.

I thought about his comments as I looked at all the iPhone apps I have downloaded, used once and abandoned -- a trend PinchMedia documented earlier this year.  Or, the number of folks who joined Twitter but left within a month, never to come back, driving their attrition rate above 50%.  Or, Inside Facebook's latest numbers showing older users not returning to Facebook.

People are not returning because the utility is missing.  Consumers might try a new social networking site or application but to gain adoption, marketers must provide utility.

So, what's useful?

There are companies -- including media companies -- today that are providing real utility via social media and reaping the benefits:

• Hyperlocal News: Even though newspapers across the country are folding, consumers' desire to learn what's happening in their community isn't diminishing -- something that NPR understood and leveraged to help them grow their audience base from 14.1 to 20.9 million over nine years.  It also helped that they rounded out their local news strategy with social media (e.g., fact check candidate claims, user generated content via Story Corps, or This I Believe programs) and a "NPR when, where and how you want it" strategies (people can listen via radio, podcast, livestream or read story on web).
• Professional networking:  The economy, with its record number of unemployed Americans has helped propel LinkedIn.com from 5.7 million to 12.1 million unique visitors over a 12 month period.  The site has enhanced search capabilities, enabled industry specific interest groups to form and has recently launched company profiles all to connect employers to employees.
• Location based information: Whether it's where your friends are, best places to eat or nearest toilet, location based information is useful and valuable for consumers.  In fact, the top downloaded iPhone applications are not games but weather applications, including an app for the Weather Channel.  According to comScore, 39% of iPhone users download and use weather apps.
• Connecting with friends:  Despite the decline in older users returning to Facebook, sites like Facebook do provide a utility:  they enable users to connect, re-connect and stay connected with their friends -- clearly something that consumers want to do as evidenced by the 700% year-over-year increase in time spent on Facebook, according to Nielsen Online.

So, the next time someone in your organization wants to jump on the social media wagon, make sure it stands up to the "It's the Utility, Stupid" litmus test.