Social media revolution: Is social media a fad, or is it the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? Social media represents a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. This video gives social media facts and figures that are hard to ignore.

Businesses continue to struggle on reasons to use Twitter. This week, I finished reading Twitterville: How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods by Shel Israel. It’s a fantastic book that documents the birth and growth of Twitter as an incredible new medium for businesses to communicate through.

Communications is certainly an ever-changing industry. As a recent college graduate, I’ve come to realize that many of the communication skills I learned will likely be antiquated (or worse, obsolete) in just a few years. Organizations, just like everybody else, need to evolve and keep up-to-date with the latest trends.

Social Media is Mainstream

In his presentation at Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit in Washington, D.C., Richard Edelman said, “Social media is now mainstream media with two-thirds of people who are online now using social networking or blogging, Facebook, YouTube, etc.” Therefore, in my opinion, it’s about time for organizations to integrate new media into internal communication efforts.

Sun Microsystems CEO Jonathan Schwartz (photo, left) gave a great keynote interview at the Web 2.0 Expo last month. He was interviewed by Tim O’Reilly. The 30 minute-plus interview covered a wide range of fascinating business- and technology-related topics, not the least of which was business blogging.

The first five minutes after the introduction concentrate specifically on how Schwartz — whom O’Reilly called “One of the most senior bloggers around” in terms of business leadership — uses his blog to reach both employees and potential clients.

I didn’t set out to make Facebook my portal for business communication, but it is something that has just happened. And no, not everyone I deal with on an everyday basis is on Facebook, but enough people are that it just works for me.

A new survey finds more companies hire staff to just read e-mails to ensure secrets are safe.

Assuming you want to increase your blog traffic, there are certain mistakes you must avoid to be successful. If you commit these mistakes, your traffic will never gain momentum. Worse, it may plateau or begin to decrease.

INSTANT messaging has come of age. No longer the province of chatty teenagers, it is now part and parcel of advanced communications networks at many corporations. And as instant messaging takes hold, companies are benefiting from new productivity gains and improvements in customer response time.

"I almost never get e-mail from my Sun colleagues," said Tim Bray, an avid instant messager and director of Web technologies for Sun Microsystems. "And I only get voice mails from outsiders."

I regularly get asked questions about how to start and maintain a successful blog. Here is my beginner’s blogging tutorial - How to Blog 101.

Like so many others, Lionel Menchaca, Dell Computer's chief blogger, thought Twitter was "fairly worthless for business" when he first looked at it in March 2007, but trying new social media tools was part of his job. Menchaca opened an account and started posting links whenever he posted on Direct2Dell, the company's oft-praised corporate blog, where he serves as principal author.

The results exceeded his expectations.