1. Polls – A fun tool on Facebook is the Poll. You can post your own custom polls quick and easy that are fun for the consumer and also beneficial for your business. The benefit is two-fold: The customer enjoys the polls and becomes more interested in your business and you gain the information from their poll submissions. Once you have a sufficient fan base, polls can be an effective tool for keeping them hooked and providing information.

2. Updates – Updating your business’ status on Facebook encourages your target market to stay interested in you and respond. Posting interesting facts and fun updates keeps the customers involved, while promoting offers, products, and services can keep your customers informed.

3. Statistics – Determining the amount of “Likes” and Fans you have can help you see first-hand the success of your networking. These connections are individuals interested in your business and look to you for advice, assistance, and business in your field. By acknowledging and focusing on what is effective, you can better increase your traffic.

Government elections are popularity contests and they always have been. Denying this fact is denying you had a favorite. The reason you vote is because you like one person more than the other, regardless of whether your reason is based on any valid merit. It’s a simple concept of social prowess. The best social avenue is the best way to get noticed. In this culture, that avenue is social media, a medium acknowledged by politicians.

Obama was one of the first (if not the first) elected official in the world that had obvious connections in social media. It undoubtedly played at least a small portion in his success in the polls. At the very least it provided him a way of analyzing his success during the election.

His success did not go unnoticed, even by our friends across the sea. In the UK, political parties are attempting to take hold of the social media culture, because through this community, the party has the most opportunity to succeed. Witnessing the correlation between popularity online and its conversion to votes, it is hard to deny the strength of a good online presence, even for government officials.

RealNetworks’ GameHouse (formerly known as RealGames) is continuing to expand its social gaming platform. By transforming the gaming experience, single-player games will be more connected. The platform is also supposed to ease transition and publishing for developers, allowing for much larger expansion.

Already succeeding on Facebook, it is soon to be available for mobile devices such as the iPhone and Android. If it functions properly, the platform could redefine gaming through social media, and will present one more medium of networking.

T-Mobile has released information on its latest MyTouch model that includes a nifty voice system. Using the Genius Button, one will be able to send text messages by simply pressing the button and speaking. Working through the proven company Nuance Communications, T-Mobile has produced a more advanced speech-recognizing technology that is sure to even further simplify communication.

While I’ve never been a fan of the name (they might as well have dangled the lawsuit carrot in front of Apple), the MyTouch has made its own strides. This new voice system, if as effective as advertised, will be a nice addition to a good phone. However, the irony has not left me, that instead of talking to a person, we will talk to our phones, which will proceed to communicate to the individual for us. Funny.

As soon as the iPad got its legs underneath it (sold its 1 millionth device), there is already a company looking to strip the metaphorical appendages right out from under it. Rumor has it Samsung will be releasing its own iPad soon, called, creatively enough, the S-Pad. Already being whispered as the iPad killer (never heard that directed towards an Apple product before), the tablet is said to have more power, compatibility, and overall options than the iPad.

While the design is eerily similar to a massive Sega Game Gear with a few extra buttons, it’s supposedly what’s inside that counts. Not much has yet been released as far as details on the device, but it is sure to draw its share of attention as the first attempt to copy another financially successful Apple product.