There are many social media platforms that businesses need to have a presence on, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+. Some will allow businesses to claim a "unique URL" that is short and personal, like, http://facebook.com/TheSocialMediaHat. Others, however, offer no such convenience. Our LinkedIn company page is at http://www.linkedin.com/company/the-social-media-hat - try giving someone that link over the phone! There are other websites and services available that will provide you with a "shortened" link, but those are non-standard and impersonal. Instead, we recommend using your own domain by creating subdomain redirects.

Every social network is a little different when it comes to what you can post and how it can look. If you're just sharing your blog title and a link, you're missing out on all kinds of ways to make your posts more interesting, more engaging, and expanding your reach to the broadest audience. As a business, utilizing blogging and social media to create and foster an inbound marketing pipeline, we simply can't afford not to take advantage of every opportunity.

That's a great question that was recently asked within the Strategic Social Networking community on Google+. To answer a question like this, we're going to need to delve a bit into what, exactly, mobile marketing is, and then see how that can play nicely with whatever you're doing (or not yet doing) on social networks. For some businesses though, we still need to first explain why this question is even relevant.

Many businesses spend a significant amount of time each year monitoring employee social media profiles, watching for any inappropriate comments or behavior. Sometimes, an employee will say something on Facebook or Twitter that is extremely derogatory toward the business or their boss. While no company should want or approve of such behavior, there are circumstances and situations where simply firing the employee is not an option.

The merging of social media and television is becomining more and more obvious. What started with a few simple icons during commercials to make viewers aware of a brand's presence on Facebook, has grown to extensive hashtag use and social media references. After the Super Bowl, social media integration has actually been a topic of great discussion, and Twitter has even gone so far as to purchase a company that specializes in monitoring and measuring social media response and engagement with live television broadcasts.

One company that is excelling at the new Social+TV advertising venue is Wonderful Pistachios.

Many businesses and organizations regularly plan and promote events. Traditionally, you might have mailed invitations, published an ad in your local newspaper or trade magazines, or perhaps even advertised on TV and radio. Particularly if you're limited in your marketing budget, Social Media represents a tremendously effective and inexpensive way to get the word out about what you're doing. Whether it's a conference or fundraiser or just a party, here are ten surefire ways to promote your event using social media, plus some activities to be thinking about during and after your event to help you prepare for the next one.