Michael Ansaldo

As one of the web’s “big three” social networks, along with Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn has grabbed its slice of the limelight as the space where professionals strategize their next career move. But that’s an unnecessarily limiting way to view this powerhouse network. Over the last few years, LinkedIn has introduced myriad tools – some free, some paid – to help small businesses drive word of mouth about their brand. Here are just a few ways you can get started.

Increase your visibility with a company page

Even as social media presents unprecedented business opportunities for marketing, customer service, brand building and consumer relationships, many organizations are still struggling to embrace it for fear that it negatively effects worker productivity or puts the company at risk. A 2011 survey by Society for Human Resource Management reveals that 43% of businesses block access to social media on company-owned computers or handheld devices.

Rather than policing employees, these organizations would be better served by a social media governance model -- a collection of policies, procedures and educational resources that allow you to manage social media internally. A sound social media governance model empowers your employees while keeping them accountable. It allows you to quickly recover from a blow to your brand, or even sidestep it completely. It helps you keep your social initiatives on track and aligned with your business’ strategic goals.

A report published last week illuminates just how some organizations are using social tools inside and outside their enterprise and what results they’re seeing, and it’s worth a read.

The report “When Social Meets Business Real Work Gets Done” shows tangible gains from the use of social initiatives within organizations of all sizes. Written by MIT professor Andrew McAfee, the paper reveals the results of an AIIM study that looked at the progress of social business technologies in organizations from 10 to over 5,000 employees, with a focus on three use cases: sales and marketing collaboration, open innovation and enterprise Q&A.

With Facebook on track to reach one billion users, reports that 75% of marketers will increase their social media spending this year, and predictions that social media will transform TV and influence the presidential election, it’s no wonder 2012 has been touted as the “Year of Social Media.”

Hyperbolic headlines like these might convince you that if you don’t incorporate social media into your business, you’ll soon be out of business. But before you race to register a Twitter account or create a Facebook fan page, you should check a few of your assumptions. Is it really necessary for you to be part of these two social networks? Sure, they’re the most popular platforms and likely your competitors are already using them – both compelling reasons – but that doesn’t mean either of them is the best option for you.

This week's unveiling of Samsung's Galaxy Tab stoked the already formidable fire lit around tablet devices by Apple's iPad. And with several other contenders coming to market in the coming months, tablets should be a common sight in the coming year, particularly in the workplace, thanks to their unique combination of power, simplicity, and portability. But will Microsoft, long prized for its business-centric offerings, manage to get in on the action?

Though the iPad has transformed the way users think of tablet computing, Apple has never shown much consistency in courting the business world. Still, its overwhelming popularity with consumers has helped the iPad penetrate into the boardroom more than most pundits expected. (In my daily travels, it's not uncommon to encounter two or three iPads in any sizeable business meeting.) And though its image as a consumer toy has dampened its appeal for IT managers, the iPad does support portable computing features that are essential for businesses, such as remote data wiping, encryption, and Microsoft Exchange support.

This week, research firm Gartner announced that by year's end Google's Android will rocket past both Apple's iOS and Research in Motion's Blackberry in popularity.

While the report that Google's smartphone OS will claim 17.7 percent of worldwide sales by the end of 2010--an astounding leap from the 3.9 percent it had at the same time last year--has grabbed headlines, Android's speedy ascent should come as little surprise. Its multivendor business model brings iPhone-like capabilities to a variety of smartphone models and wireless carriers, allowing consumers myriad choices for their mobile experience.

The bidding war for 3Par ramped up this week when HP raised its offer to $30 per share, a $3 increase over Dell's bid, bringing the bidding to $2 billion. Dell had launched the opening salvo in mid-August when it had offered just over $1 billion to buy 3Par. As of this writing, 3Par had deemed HP's bid "superior" and Dell was mulling over its response.

The unlikely battle of these PC behemoths over a small Fremont, CA data-storage company emphasizes the storage market's continuing shift toward enterprise cloud computing. Thanks to the recession, more corporate clients are embracing the kind of affordable virtualized storage that companies like 3Par provide.

Facebook's unveiling of Facebook Places is an obvious banshee cry to Foursquare and other location-based check-in services. As with those services, Facebook Places allows users to share their location and discover new hot spots by following the stops of people in their network.

While the folks at Facebook haven't confirmed how Facebook Places might eventually integrate with Facebook's business pages, this is undoubtedly in the works and once it happens the implications are obvious -- companies will have an easy opportunity to market and promote their services on the most popular and powerful social media platform.