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Whether you are looking to gain new customers or to have a strong presence online for a unique business then social media is a channel that you should consider investing in. It is easy to dismiss social media by assuming that it is too time consuming to keep up to date, but there are now a multitude of different social networking sites to choose from which require differing levels of interaction. If you currently have a blog on your website or are considering adding one, then you can link social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter to this so that they update with the content of your blog.

Make sure that you target sites that are relevant to your business in order to achieve a positive response. Social media is most beneficial for businesses which depend upon repeat visits and regularly have deals and new products. Search engines love changing content so make the most of the promotions and goods that you offer. It is also important in order to keep up with rival businesses and get as much exposure for your company as possible.

Most social networking sites are free to use so it is worth spending a little bit of time on establishing yourself online and measuring the response. You may soon be reaping the benefits.

Google have been taking steps to getting more involved in social gaming by making several related purchases. Google have recently bought Slide; a social gaming company that deals with games widgets and social media applications as well as offering up a $100 million stake in Zynga who created games such as Farmville and Mafia Wars. Google’s latest investment is in partnership with Jambool who are founder of the virtual monetisation platform; social gold.

Virtual currencies are used for gaming and social media websites such as Facebook, who is currently the leader in this arena. Jambool, in isolation, could not compete with the internet phenomenon but is now a much more worthy contender as a Google partner. Developers create, host, manage and monetise virtual economies and integrate them into gaming systems.

The flourishing competition between Facebook and Google should benefit consumers by giving them more choice and developers by lowering transaction fees.

Social media websites have developed into a cultural norm. It was originally seen as a trend for the younger generations but usage has now extended to people of all ages making it an Internet phenomenon. But what does posting updates on our every move mean about our private lives? Are we obscuring the separating line between our public and private lives?

Peggy Orenstein explored this issue in an article for the New York Times focussing on an instance when she was enjoying a shared moment with her daughter and had an overwhelming urge to leave this state of happiness to tweet how much she was enjoying herself. It is almost as if we are simply observers of our own lives and recounting stories to an audience. As Orenstein wrote, we are “blurring the lines not only between public and private but also between the authentic and contrived self.”

However, contrary to what many now believe, the concept of creating a public persona is not a new one. In the 1950s the sociologist, Ervin Goffman described the whole of one’s life as a performance. But perhaps Twitter has taken this to a whole new level. It is as if we are creating an Internet marketing package to sell ourselves as a valid existence. Orenstein is not complete at Twitter’s mercy, she has vowed to try and resist the urge to ruin an enjoyable moment in order to simply recount it to other people.

So you know what it looks like the details of the specs and so on, but what’s the iPad really like?

The truth is that it is only when you actually get your hands of Apple’s latest piece of innovation that it really begins to make sense. It’s light enough to be perfectly manageable in one hand while you tap, swipe, pinch-zoom with the other. Or you can grip it with both hands and type with your thumps. Either way, it’s a highly tactile device with the same intimacy that you feel with other touch screens.

The real stand-out feature of the iPad is its speed and as Google has now confirmed that its new ‘Caffeine’ algorithm change has been fully rolled out and here to stay, it seems that a site’s page load speed is set to become a major issue in web design. But back to the iPad . . .

The increased speed of the device means that apps open instantly, internet pages build quickly, the big screen responds immediately. This all makes it a very satisfying experience. Of course it’s not a full computer experience – the touch screen keyboard can be fiddly and doesn’t have the haptic response that many smartphones make the most of. Also there is no Flash animation support, so not every site displays properly, but this is one of the few disappointments when you get to grips with the iPad.

All in all the iPad is a light, cute and powerful alternative to another laptop in the house.

Behavioural targeting could well define the future of internet advertising. The principle is simply the better you understand users, the more accurately you can target the. But where do we draw the line in collecting and collating the data. And who’s going to draw it?

Behavioural targeting is no longer a fledgling technology. The first stage was simply looking at users’ behaviour and targeting them based on what they are doing right now. For instance, if a user had looked at an insurance website in the past hour, then they were a prime target for an insurance ad.

However, the second stage has moved thing on much further. The question now is to understand users enough to predict what they haven’t even done yet. By looking at independent threads of information collected on a user’s behaviour the aim now is to predict what products they may be interested

We knew it wouldn’t be long until the social networking sites integrated a shopping platform into their web design. The increase in users and time spent on site indicates that users are clearly embracing social networking. We trust status updates and tweets from our friends or followers so it would be a natural transition for products to be bought directly through this channel.

A recent study by Omniture suggests that Facebook is the most popular method of direct interaction with consumers. New tools are being released to allow users to sell goods through the social media site of their choice. However, research shows that unfortunately this functions at its best when the company selling the goods already has an online presence on the social media channels. The costs involved are not cheap either.

From the 600 marketers surveyed, around 80% of users in the retail sector are using social media to market products. 63% believed that Facebook was the most important site with blogs at 40% and Twitter lagging at 28%.

The direct shopping technology involved can cost around $25 a month for certain sites and Facebook plan to charge 30% of the total value of goods sold through the site. If the margins for your product are already being squeezed then selling your goods through social media channels may not be the most appropriate move for you. Perhaps the recent addition of the “like” feature on Facebook may be enough to pass on your friends seal of approval on a particular brand’s fan page?