On Facebook, a room entitled Swine Flu - Influenza A (H1N1) - Facts News Updates Widgets, was created just hours ago and is now reaching thousands from New York, Montreal and Mexico City to London, Paris and Tokyo. This Facebook forum contains the latest news updates from the Center of Disease Control CDC and the World Health Organization.

Too many marketers these days confuse what social media is. They don’t understand the difference between the evolution of marketing and what simply works right now.

despite the hockey-stick growth chart, Twitter faces an uphill battle in making sure these flocks of new users are enticed to return to the nest.

Twitter (Twitter reviews) today launched a new interface for all users, adding search and trending topics to the sidebar for all those using Twitter.com.

One of the greatest advantages for social media is the voice of the customer. We’ll post a question, such as, ‘Are you in favor of darkening the bike out, blackening the bike out or shiny chrome?’ We’ll get customers to comment. It won’t be unusual to receive 300 to 500 comments. It helps us learn what people are saying outside the walls of Harley.

As expected since yesterday, FacebookFacebook reviewsFacebook reviews has launched the Open Stream API, which lets third-party developers use Facebook’s activity stream inside their own applications and services.

Twitter continues to defy all those who question its relevance. Exploding from 6 million visitors at the beginning of the year, ComScore released its latest numbers that portray an almost vertical ascent through the end of February 2009, hitting an astonishing 10 million worldwide.

On company Web sites everywhere, community sections are popping up—both a cause and an effect of a climate in which more and more marketing directors and brand managers are being asked by their companies, "Why don't we do something 2.0?"

Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Tickets.com Inc. are launching services to let customers buy tickets directly from their mobile phones, in an ambitious attempt to extend Internet commerce to cellphone screens.

Katie Delahaye Paine is a renowned expert on public relations and social media measurement. She runs an award winning PR Measurement consultancy KDPaine.