Even in today’s ultra modern, technology-driven world, some old fashioned business ideas still prevail. Social media websites, which have become the personification of the contemporary Internet world, are no exception. While their management teams certainly embrace new innovation and information age know-how, they also recognize the value of business concepts developed (gasp) way back in the 1950′s.

Such as continuous improvement, for example.

If the man credited by many for the concept of continuous improvement models, W. Edwards Deming, were alive today, he’d be proud of companies like MySpace, LinkedIn and Facebook. Here are a few reasons why:

. In January of this year, MySpace announced changes to its application programming interface that are targeted to improving growth channels and analytics to assist app developers. These changes are expected to yield better application feedback and provide greater insight into what it takes to keep app users on MySpace for longer periods of time. Many social media insiders already credit MySpace for having better revenue per user figures than Facebook, and with continued focus on improving what MySpace is already good at (social gaming, for example) that trend could very well continue.

. LinkedIn, a site long known best for the business side of social media networking, is nudging itself a little closer to the lighter side of things. Recent upgrades to the way users interact within site groups are focused on encouraging more social communication, without losing the business-driven concentration LinkedIn is known for. Now, the 650,000 users that belong to groups on the site can follow other users and indicate their approval of group commentary by clicking a “like” button that highlights pleasing content. There are additional improvements geared toward promoting further user interaction, all of which is designed to keep the 70 million LinkedIn members firmly linked in.

. With a few too many horror stories about user information being compromised by hackers, Facebook has responded with security improvements related to application development. Now, by default, applications can only access that part of user profiles that is already public, rather than giving apps carte blanch access to all basic user information. This key improvement will help to shore up the site’s privacy and security record going forward, which is mission critical in the eyes of its users and the industry in general.

Yes, Deming would be proud. And although he’d be most likely to join LinkedIn first, he might just as well have a few followers on Twitter and Facebook, too.

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