Moving forward, we’ll be covering the top social media stories of the week – instead of the top stories of the day.  

LinkedIn now has over 187 millions users LinkedIn’s popularity continues to grow amongst social professionals.  When compared to Facebook (1 BILLION users) and Twitter (nearly 500 millions users), LinkedIn is still relatively small.  However, they continue to beat Wall Street predictions and, in my opinion, impress users with their clean re-designs and new functionality.

Facebook test out new Timeline look Yes, there may be even more changes to your Facebook account.  When Timeline rolled out, it’s safe to say that not everyone was too thrilled.  Now the social media behemoth seems to be testing out some new designs that would make those Timeline-haters happy.  Users have complained that the two-column layout is confusing and hard on the eyes.  The newly tested layout keeps the two-column layout; however, it only feeds your updates down one of the columns.  Basically, bringing things full circle to where it was before Timeline rolled out.

Why companies should practice good taste in times of tragedy and beyond  Amongst the positive messages and hope found on social media this week surrounding Hurricane Sandy, some companies found themselves under scrutiny for their poor taste during a tragic time.  American Apparel, the American manufacturer of clothing basics, tried to make light of the situation by running a sales promotion called, “SandySale.”  Like American Apparel, the Gap tried to their best to redirect attention only to have it totally backfire – creating a PR nightmare. What do you think of companies trying to make light of a serious situation?  Is newsjacking an appropriate method?

50% of web sales to occur via social media by 2015 Believe it or not, you’ll soon be making most of your purchases online via social media.  Instead of trying to explain how this will happen, I’ll let this awesome infographic show you the way.

6 Reasons Why Your Business Needs a Blog Of course this is something we support wholeheartedly.  Like ProBlogger points out, business blogging doesn’t have to be boring.  There is a huge opportunity out there for business to create remarkable content that will drive website visits and potential sales.  Chances are a businesses competitors aren’t blogging yet – it’s still pretty scary for most businesses.  However, I can promise you that will change.  The quicker you adopt a content marketing strategy though blogging and social media, the further ahead you’ll be when the competition finally jumps on board.