This week we’ve decided to give you a roundup of some new articles that do a lot of different things. It’s been a busy week and we didn’t want you to miss out on some important and helpful information that’s been popping out of Mashable in particular. So, in an old fashion tip of the hat to Mashable, we present you with some of this great content getting you up to speed on what’s up with all of these different platforms.

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What’s Up With Smartphones? Well, we’ve got tips for you to make your app more discoverable. It has to do with optimization, in-bound leads, and customer reviews. Oh by the way, soon your phone may be able to tell you when you’re sick. When will we see the phone that tells you what the right thing to do is?

What’s Up With Twitter: They’re putting promoted tweets in your timeline in the Next 2 Months. And by the way, I hope you like the new twitter. Because the old one is dead.

What’s With Facebook? They’re experimenting with comment ads. This is an interesting move, and is a nifty new idea that you may want to start considering. With this addition to the ad strategy, en element of engagement is instantiated that wasn’t present before.

What’s Up With LinkedIn? They’re perpetually getting better, and now they’re using column ads and profile promotions to encourage follows and recommendations, similar to some of the features on Facebook’s right hand interface column. Imagine, on the side of your LinkedIn page, “you might be interested in applying for this job”.

Are your fans this passionate? Well…that may be a good thing…

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Most days you’ll go into work, talk to some customers or clients, and, if you’re reading this, you probably spend a reasonable amount of time talking with online fans, followers, etc. Sometimes you see them, but, especially if your organization is web-centered, often you don’t. This might not always your top priority, but in today’s post, we encourage you to, for the next few months, bump it up a notch or two or six.

There’s something about face to face interaction to which, despite the efficacy and revolutionary grandeur of the web’s new marketing tools, social media has always conceded. And we defy you to consider a handful of times that you’ve had a more riveting interaction on the web than you did in real life. There’s something mysteriously complex and fascinating about talking to someone. Human beings are social. And if social media is all about building relationships, then there’s no replacement for a good handshake, good eye contact, and a welcoming, comforting attitude–really talking. In the small business world, people follow people, not entities.

We’re asking your business, for your sake and ours, to be something to do.

So this week, as the Summer rolls itself in and the city gets its itch to go out and play, we’ve got a handful of articles talking about how to set up and promote live events, how to integrate them with your existing social media strategy, and what kinds of things you can get out of them. Enjoy!

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8 Ways to Improve Events With Social Media. This Mashable article goes through the strong fundamentals of live events–establish social networks, incentivize invites, new tools, live streaming, and a lot more. This is key.

5 Quick Tactics for Supercharging Your Events Marketing. If Mashable covers the fundamental strategy, the logic of it all, then MarketingProfs covers the pathos, the attitude of it all, giving you a smart “how” to guide you through your event marketing.

3 Reasons Live Events Are Good Content Marketing. Another smart one from the Profs. Live events allows you to get your content to an audience in a way that’s fun and engaging for both parties. What would you rather go to? A webinar or a half day summit with lunch and cookies! See, it’s not even a question.

How To Market Your Events With Social Media. From Technsare, we see a very backend-heavy approach to event marketing with a large focus on monitoring and preparation. Great considerations and advice.

Spring Brings Fans Out, Marketers Calling, “It’s Event Season”. Now while this post focuses on sports events, there’s a lot to take into account for your own purposes. With beautiful weather around, maybe your business could be one of those “things to do” in your city.

The Royal Wedding Was The Sixth Largest Web Event In History. So you could plan a royal wedding. That’s one option. But if that’s not within your means, take this article as fun and helpful for seeing the history of web events.

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How Social Media Reacted On Osama Bin Laden Death. We’ve been keeping up pretty darn well with these stories, and this has the best sum-up of how a variety of platforms were affected by the news, from Flickr to Youtube to search engines.

Timeline: How News of Osama Bin Laden’s Death Unfolded on Twitter. Everyone knows Twitter is where it started. Mashable recounts how, piece by piece, second by second, the world came to know and respond to the monumental event.

One Twitter User Reports Live From Osama Bin Laden Raid. And apparently he didn’t even know what he was in the middle of.

“Osama Bin Laden is DEAD” Facebook Page Goes Viral. Over 150,000 likes in two hours.

Foursquare Users Check Into Post-Osama Bin Laden World. You might be thinking, how could people check in to a thing like this? Well, they did.

Google Maps Shows Where Osama Bin Laden Died. Even Google Maps is in on it! Quickly after the news was revealed, Google Maps was updated with an “Osama Bin Laden’s Compound” in norther Pakistan.

Other Related Stories

Osama/Obama Gaffes. And next-to-lastly, how not to do social media in a time of crisis. Lesson #1–do not report, under any circumstances, that the President has been killed.

Players learning that social media needs to be used responsibly. You tweeted, she tweeted, we all tweeted. Let’s face it, not all of it was appropriate and you’d be a lucky one if you managed to squeeze by a Facebook political conversation unnoticed. But if you’re an NFL player, it’s hard to hide in the crowd. And Rashard Mendenhall of the Pittsburgh Steelers learned the hard way.

Photo by ZUMA Press via Mother Nature Network (MNN).

In addition, look: what’s social media about? Here’s a good answer–building relationships. Relationships? Engagements?! This sounds heavy! Not ready to commit? That’s fine, but when you’re able to have real conversations that you and your Other are both interested in, when you can be mutually helpful and supportive–well, you might just find yourself changing your relationship status to “married to my fans”. Jokes aside, if you want to have any success in social media, get your audience talking. How? We’re glad you asked.

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HOW TO: Improve Engagement On Your Brand’s Facebook Page. By far the most awesome thing you’ll read this week. Industry-specific tips based on real data of 200 companies over two weeks. The images are great, and should change your game for engagement in the coming weeks.

How to Encourage Engagement on Facebook. Another outstanding article, bringing in the idea of contra-competitive posting and including an e-marketer graphic. Gotta love emarketer.

16 ways To Get More Comments On Your Facebook Page. This article focuses on asking questions. What do you ask? How do you ask it? And, our personal input, always think of what exactly you’re trying to achieve when you do ask it.

The 5 Golden Facebook Engagement Metrics. Metrics are key for finding out what to do. So we have two articles here for you. This one gives you the tips as well as examples for the things to do/watch for no matter the size of your business. If you keep just these 5 metrics in mind, then you’ve got a good start for progress.

How to Measure Your Facebook Engagament. I mean, you could start counting comments and likes, but we’re not sure that’s really what you want to do. Facebook comes with some sophisticated analytics that allow you to see what works and what doesn’t. Remember that, in the end, past all the tips, do what works for you.

image courtesy www.93south.net

It’s important to remember that getting more fans isn’t the point of social media. It’s a necessary part of it. You want the right fans, and you want to engage them in the right way. A large part of getting more fans is to have a solid, well-kept, helpful, interesting Facebook page. So never sacrifice quality of content for numbers. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere.

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Oh yeah, two notes. Firstly, there are a lot of people out there telling you that you can buy more Facebook fans from them. It’s ridiculous, and don’t do it. Unless of course you’re hiring on a professional, reputable company who is helping you build a social media strategy. Otherwise, stick to doing social media well. It’ll pay off.

Secondly, a couple of these first articles are old (the dinosaur ages of 2009 and 2010). This isn’t because we’re unhip–hey, we read Slate–but because the trouble of getting more fans has been around since pages were introduced. So some of the information is outdated, but know we chose these articles because they are still useful, and the tips are still relevant/still hold. And there you doubted us for a second.

How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions. Now this article doesn’t actually tell you how to get a million fans (and for a small business, we’re not sure that’s what you’re aiming for). Aaaaand it’s also from 2009, but that shouldn’t deter you. Even if it is one of those articles telling you what a facebook fan page is, we checked through all 10 tips and all 10 tips still hold. Call it goin’ retro. It works.

21 Creative Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fan Base. Quick tips: use video, cross-post to other social media outlets, print (people still walk around in the real world from time to time).

How To Get Facebook Fans: The Easy Way and the Hard Way. This article focuses on Facebook advertising and why it’s a route worth taking. From January 2011.

9 Best Ways to Increase Facebook Fans. Some additional, more current ideas on some solid, proven methods of getting more fans.There’s some overlap, but call it reinforcement.

The Top 5 Ways to Stand Out On Facebook. This one is less directly focused on getting more fans, but talks about how to be a good brand on Facebook. You do that, and people will like you, link to you, and trust us, you’ll see the fan count rise.

image courtesy www.bulklikes.com

With a good Texan salutation, we move on to this week’s Friday blog post, in which we cover some new stuff with Facebook. No, we won’t be covering the “shift+enter” complaints or the “memorable status updates” (Watch your words! Facebook never forgets!), but we do have some articles that should prove a tasty treat for those of you with a sixth basic taste of business. So what can Facebook do for you today? Let’s see:

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What’s New With Facebook

Facebook Expands Tagging to Include Comments: The same “@” sign that you’ve been using to link events, people, and pages is being expanded into virtually any place you can enter text on Facebook, which, if you’re the taggable brand, is good news for you.

4 Facebook E-Commerce Tips for Brands: a lot of businesses use Facebook to sell directly rather than as a referral tool. If you’re doing this or this idea sounds appealing to you, here are some good tips on doing it right.

Yes, Facebook Is A Viable Marketing Strategy For Startups: There is some concern among “the they” that Facebook is no longer– or at least will soon no longer be—fashionable or effective. Nick O’neill calls them out and argues that Facebook is still the number one marketing channel and is “practically mandatory” for online startups.

REPORT: Facebook Like Drives $1.34 In Ticket Sales: Eventbrite recently released a study showing the dollar worth of a facebook share and a tweet in ticket sales for events, a must-read for any business hosting (or thinking of hosting) events.

Why You Need Facebook’s Like Button On Your Site: We probably don’t need to beat you over the head with this idea for you to know its importance. But really, you should do it. The article has some resources and fully explains the awesome functionality of the “like”.

image courtesy www.twitter.com/facebookmedia

On its surface, it seems ridiculous. What could we possibly have to learn from a self-proclaimed cocaine addict, a possible wife abuser, and guy who waves a machete on his roof all wrapped into one?

On a personal level, probably not much. But on a professional level, Charlie Sheen has really done something interesting with social media. And all without a Facebook page.

Below we have one of the videos that started it all and had everyone asking, is he crazy? Has he lost it? Is he coked out? Or is he a genius?

But after a while people stopped caring so much about what brought on this sudden outburst from the actor we’ve known so long, and started #winning, throwing a #fastball, and discovering their #tigerblood. The simple word “winning” has gone from a cool thing that might get you a few Facebook likes from friends to “Just scored the last jelly donut at work. #WINNING” and puts you in touch with the wave of millions of Charlie Sheen fans all stoked on their fortune, all part of the most twisted and accidental motivational campaign the internet’s ever seen. And even the ironists are taking part in the trend in Chuck Norris-Joke fashion, which is just as much absurd as it is peculiarly self-satisfying. Like Sheen says,

“Admit it folks, the whole winning thing, you just feel better when you say it.”

But how’s he doing it? First, the video went viral. But how do you sustain it? He took some cues from Conan O’Brien, creating his Team Sheen, and with a Twitter the world could get as much Charlie as their smartphone put out.

No matter what’s behind the outing of Charlie Sheen’s new public game face–a hugely successful publicity stunt, a comedian that never was, whatever; as long as you’re #winning right?–there’s no doubt it’s been tremendously successful. So here are five things we can learn about social media from Charlie Sheen.

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(1) Video, Video, Video.

Here is the viral video that started it all (apologies, it wasn’t embeddable). We’re not recommending you do this–or anything else Sheen mentions in the video–with your business or with your self, but there’s something to be said for (1) standing out from your competition, (2) breaking the rules, (3) being fearless, (4) having crazy intense catch phrases rolling out of your mouth every five seconds.

But that’s not all. Sheen also does live Ustream shows for his fans. It’s called Sheen’s Korner. Branding branding. Some of this stuff is really amazing writing, and we doubt it’s all Sheen. But after all, it is Charlie.

(2) Twitter Is Powerful For Personalities

This is the link to the official Charlie Sheen Twitter. It’ll speak for itself. But here we have a mind that millions of people want to get inside of, and Twitter is the perfect platform for that. Look at the extreme use of personality to drive people to this Twitter. And also, we’re cheating here, but another lesson—Never Understimate Humor. If people couldn’t laugh with Sheen (and remember Sheen is laughing too), they wouldn’t be following him.

Just a few hours ago an article was published “revealing the secret” behind Charlie Sheen’s tweets. Surprise surprise, it’s not all him. But we can safely assume it’s mostly him, and he’s been using this to promote his “My Violent Torpedo of Truth/Defeat is Not An Option Show”. Want to talk ROI? Now here’s some tangible, monetary ROI.

(3) There Are Some Important Considerations In Getting An Intern

There’s been a big fuss recently about last week’s tweet from Charlie Sheen saying he’s looking for an intern. The particular fuss is that once people know that Sheen’s totally removed from his tweets, people will lose interest. They want the #warlock. So there’s some good discussion on what makes a good intern. Your scale of social media probably isn’t Sheen-sized, but if your business doesn’t depend solely on your personality (or even if it does), do some serious thinking about who your intern will be and how your intern will operate within your social media goals.

(4) If People Like You, The Street Team Will Form Organically

Not everyone is so lucky to have a last name that sounds a lot like “team”, but you can get creative. If you’ve stood out from your competitor’s in an important, bold, and assertive way, people will appreciate that and promote your distinction all on their own. Word of mouth is one thing, but if your breakfast taco is “twice the power of the normal taco”, the idea is so absurd and funny that people are likely to take it upon themselves to promote it how they can. We seem to be in an age that appreciates they hyperbolic, the exaggerated, the ridiculous. Capitalize on this and find your quirk. People will want to talk about you and promote you.

(5) It Is, Always Has Been, and Always Will Be About People

Sure, we can talk about online conversion and merchandising—Charlie Sheen is making big bucks off of all this. With catch phrases like “Dyin’s For Fools” and “I only know one speed–Go!”, who wouldn’t want a shirt that says that? But in the end, no one is stoked on Coca-Cola, or Disney World, or XYZ Donuts. People really follow people. So perhaps the most important lesson from all of this is, for better or worse, be a real person, be fearless, and be yourself.

Oh and yeah, get an autotuner.

Quora is a question and answer website that might remind us of Facebook Questions, LinkedIn Q&A, Ask.com, and more. And you wouldn’t be too far off, but Quora has got some important differences, and some likely tempting implications for your business. Of particular, initial note, it requires correct spelling and grammar when people ask questions. Comforting, no? At least we got through that much.

We’re rather self-satisfied with this group of articles and where it ends up, with the meaty “Social Media for Business, Not Social Media Hipsters” article. It’s worth it to take a look at several of these articles to make sure this isn’t you boat to catch before everyone’s on it.

We want to hear from you–on our blog, on our Facebook wall, or tweet at us! What do you make of Quora? Is it all hype, or did somebody finally get it right?

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All About Quora

Should I care about Quora: Mario Sundar suggests that Quora may not be for all business owners, but for those in the business of information (businesses that have blogs, twitter accounts), it could serve more useful than–or a strong supplement to–other current social media outlets.

Is Quora The Next Red-Hot Web Startup?: Time covers some of the story of Quora, its ups and downs, and how the community of quora (intelligent, well informed individuals) is its core strength. Will it last is the primary question.

Quora Booms, but Will Marketers Follow?: Clickz presents both B2B and B2C potential in Quora, as well as the idea that it could serve similar peer review functions to something like Yelp. “Consumers have already started to use Quora for feedback on products, restaurants, services, and more,” Spinks said. “A quick search of ‘restaurants in NYC’ will display a number of questions already asked by users…As Quora grows and reaches the less tech-savvy masses, the B2C value will only grow. This will be especially true if they open up their content to search engines, like they said they would a while back – but still haven’t as far as I know.”

7 Reasons Why Quora Will Be Bigger Than Foursquare: Logic+Emotion gives a quick response to the Quora buzz, saying that the ultimate usefulness of knowledge from professionals and experts, among other things, may end up more appealing than 2010′s hot social media hit, Foursquare.

Here’s What Makes Quora Better Than Other Q&A Services: Business Insider suggests that the specificity of Quora’s knowledge base is perhaps its biggest strength, even rivaling the everything-tyrant Google: “Quora seems to be a delightful indication of the beginning of the end of Google’s monopolization over search engines, at least in the search for very specific knowledge.”

Social Media for Business, Not Social Media Hipsters: Chief Branding Officer Lisa Barone of Outspoken Media gets straight to the heart of what you’re looking for, and gives you several tangible ways you can use Quora for business. Teaser? Why, only just a little: Market Research, Vendor/Tool Vetting, Make Connections.

Aren't all of your B2B interactions like this?

Well hello there! This week’s roundup is all business. So business, we’ve got a slew of articles here for you on B2B. Emarketer has some info-packed articles on mobile, email, websites, and social media use among B2B, and MarketingSherpa serves some knowledge made of social media tactics and B2B sales.

So be on the lookout every week for news, tips from pros, reviews, emerging technology, and a whole bundle of thought-provoking articles on this ever-developing, exciting world of social media.

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Website and Email critical b2b investments: Emarketer gives us another insightful article, showing that online marketing spending in 2011 has website and email with the largest increase in funding, followed by social media. This article’s packed with additional stats on what the B2B industry is doing.

How and When to Use Content in the B2B Sales Process: MarketingSherpa has three of their panelists from the “How To Develop Content for Specific Buying Stages” panel break down their systems and advice into essential elements of cohesiveness, defining the buying stages, and involving sales. Read the thorough explanations of each element via the link.

Social Media Tactics for B2b: What are the most common B2b social media marketing tactics? MarketingSherpa graphed it out so you can find out what’s most effective for other B2b groups like your own.

B2B possibilities for mobile: Forbes Insight surveyed C-Suite executives in October 2010 and found 82% had a smartphone, with 56% saying they’d clicked on mobile ads. If you wanted to know about the real presence of mobile in the business world, this Emarketer article breaks it down well. How often do you work on your smartphone?