Facebook has just announced Places, a new feature that will allow users to share their location with other Facebook users via their smartphones. A lot of questions have been raised over this new feature, so here is a helpful guide Mashable put together that explains what Places is and what it will mean for businesses, you, and your privacy.

First of all, in order to use Places you will have to have a smartphone. This feature works best on the iPhone, but if you don’t have one, you can still access Places through Facebook’s Mobile Touch Site as long as your browser supports HTML5 and geolocations. Facebook plans to release versions of Places for Android and Blackberry devices, but no official dates have been released yet.

The first time you click on the Places tab on your iPhone or your Mobile Touch device, you will be asked for permission for Facebook to know your locations. Once you accept, you will be taken to the Places interface. From here, you can share your location with friends, find where your friends are located (provided they are using Places), and discover new areas around you. You have the options to add places, check into existing places, and tag people who are with you.

In order for businesses to show up on Places, they must submit an official document such as a business license or a Better Business Bureau accreditation. Facebook also plans to launch an API so developers can incorporate this feature into their applications. Working with sites such as Yelp and Gowalla, this feature will allow third-party apps to pull information and run queries from Places’ data.

So what happens when Places goes wrong? If Places displays a wrong location, or you feel that it is infringing on your privacy, you can report this incorrect data and it will be flagged for removal. Unfortunately, this removal is not immediate, but you can immediately untag yourself from these locations.

One of the main concerns with Places is user privacy. While this feature is designed to share your location with your friends only, your checkins will automatically show up in your newsfeeds and status updates. Friends can also check you into locations without your permission. Steps to make places more secure are available; however, you just have to know where to find them. By carefully going through the various “Customize Setting” for Places, you will be able to control who sees your locations and who can tag you.

This new feature is generating a lot of hype and is sure to raise many questions. Check out the full article for more on Places.

In a recent article by Todd Defren, he discusses a very real and common problem among social media specialists: exhaustion. Defren explains that not too long ago the mark of a successful marketer was “getting ink.” While this may have been an exaggeration, Defren is not too far off. The advent of social media has not only opened doors for a wealth of new marketing strategies, but it has also increased the work load of marketers tenfold. A social media specialist’s job today includes engaging with consumers, identifying problems in online avenues, dealing with these problems, writing new and interesting content for blogs, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and several other social sites, keeping track of what the competition is doing, and doing all of this before lunch so that they can repeat the entire process after.

So what do you do to cope with this ever-increasing list of to-dos? Defren offers five steps that might make your work day a bit less stressful: decide on your goals, ask for help, set a reasonable pace, “under-promise and over-deliver,” and measure. These steps may not make your day easier, but it will make it more manageable. Read the full article for more on how to change your workday from a sprint into a marathon.

Many businesses today are joining the social media movement, and without a doubt the largest online social market is Facebook. Businesses can use Facebook to create “fan pages” designed to let them connect with consumers and prospects on a wide scale and keep them up-to-date on company news and products. By creating a “fan page”, businesses have access to over 500 million subscribers. But how do you manage such a large market?

Many experts believe that in today’s technology driven market, “old-school” marketing techniques are out dated and will not work on newer markets such as Facebook. Dean Rieck, writer and direct-marketing consultant, thinks otherwise. In a recent article published on MarketingProfs, Dean lists 13 “old-school” marketing techniques that he believes will take your Facebook fan page from “wimpy to wow.”

Dean’s first technique is to advertise your page. He believes that if you want people to come to your site, you must drive them there. At a minimum, link your Facebook page to your website. Increase your advertising by using Facebook ads, blogs, banners, and any other advertising to get your fan page noticed.

He also adds that to beef up your Facebook fan page, you need to research both your fan base and your competition. Using Facebook’s Insight feature, you can view metrics on your fans, such as how many active fans you have and how many comments and interactions are taking place. You can also access your competitions fan pages to see how their pages compare to yours.

Check out the full article for the complete list of Dean Rieck’s “old-school” marketing techniques and see how you can turn your Facebook page from wimpy to wow.

If your company is utilizing social media, odds are you have dealt with sites such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. You are also probably aware that managing social media can be difficult due to how many different types of social media sites exist. To avoid this challenge, many companies use their various social media sites as direct channels to reach their customers. The problem with this, however, is that you can not build a marketing strategy on the idea that people will follow you around the Internet going to every one of your sites.

According to an article on Media Post, companies need to think of social media as an interconnected web. By making your Twitter feed visible on your website, your online stores accessible through Facebook, and placing your YouTube videos everywhere, your customers will easily be able to access and navigate your business regardless of the channel.

The trick here, however, is to make sure you can maintain your authenticity. When integrating social media into your various sites, it is easy to simply automate your responses. You can have your Facebook updates post to your Twitter, your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn, and so forth. This may seem like a great idea to save time and effort, but this can get annoying for the customer.

If your followers are constantly receiving updates from your social media sites, they are more likely to simply “hide” you rather than being bombarded by messages. Media Post suggests that whenever you are tempted to automate your social media, as yourself, “What will this do to the customer experience?” Try to find a balance between automated responses and personal ones.

Check out the full article to see how you might can achieve that perfect balance.

The iPhone is one of the most popular smartphones on the market, and much of its popularity is due to its App Store. The App Store allows iPhone, iPad, and iPod users to download applications for free or for a cost. These apps range from business apps to games and entertainment apps.

One app in particular is starting to generate a lot of buzz. This app is Talking Tom Cat. Created by Outfit7, Talking Tom Cat is a fun, entertainment app that allows users to interact with a 3D cat on their iPhone. You can interact with Tom by petting, poking, punching and tail pulling. Each action will get a different reaction from Tom. These range from Tom purring to yelling OUCH! If you poke or punch him too many times, he will fall to the floor dizzy. If left alone for too long, Tom will begin to yawn or sneeze to get your attention. Additional props, such as a glass of milk, also surround Tom.

This simple interaction is amusing, but the real value of Tom is his ability to mimic everything said to him. Tom records what is said and replays it in a humorous cat voice that varies in pitch based on the voice of the person being recorded. Whenever Tom is recording, he will turn a listening ear and a paw to the screen.

This feature gets even better by allowing you to record up to 30 seconds of Tom in action and send it directly to Facebook, YouTube, or send a direct email of the video. Sending this video to a friend is sure to get a few laughs. This fun and entertaining app is free to download and is a must have for people wanting to liven up their iPhone.

Check out Talking Tom Cat for yourself.

This past year, Microsoft announced the launch of Outlook social connector, a new feature for Outlook 2010 that will link social network feeds directly to your Outlook inbox. The first to partner with this new feature was LinkedIn, but Microsoft promised other social networking sites would soon follow. Microsoft recently fulfilled that promise by announcing that Facebook and Windows Live Messenger have now been integrated into Outlook. Right now, this integration is only for Outlook 2010 beta, but Microsoft plans to release the plug-in for Outlook 2003 and 2007.

This new feature will not only will pull Facebook profile photos, but will also pull the latest newsfeeds of your contacts directly to your inbox. While you are reading your e-mails, you will be able to see photos, latest feeds, wall posts, and various other content. Microsoft also announced that this info will work on a live feed so there will be no need to refresh anything. Microsoft did say that Outlook social connector does have it limits though. Outlook will only be able to pull data fromFacebook. The ability to “Like” posts or update statuses will not be available…for now.

Microsoft is hoping this new feature will be useful in the business world by making e-mail more sociable. Being able to know exactly what your clients are thinking will be a major asset in the marketing world.

Read the full article to learn more about the announcement.

If you have ever used Facebook, you are well aware of the “Like” buttons. This simple feature allows users to “Like” something they read and post it directly to their Facebook page. In fact, nearly 65 million users are “Liking” things daily. This feature is incredibly popular among content creators and online marketers, and soon they will have another way to access “Likes.”

A recent article explains how MailChimp, an e-mail marketing service, will be releasing a new version of its application that will integrate “Likes” into e-mail campaigns. This means that marketers will be able to add a “Like” button directly to their e-mails. These like buttons will work exactly like they do on the web. When a subscriber clicks the “Like” button the campaign will be posted directly to their Facebook page. All the “Like” behaviors will be tracked by MailChimp and be accessible through a campaign social stats section.

This new “Like” feature will require e-mail recipients take a more social and long-lasting roll, rather than simply following a link. MailChimp is hoping this new feature will greatly enhance user engagement, especially with e-mail marketers. Read the full article for more info and a video walkthrough.

In today’s market, you should no longer be asking yourself whether or not your business should join the social media community. The question today is: how involved does my business get in social media? Do you be conservative with your involvement, or do you let it all hang out? Knowing how open your business should be in online communities can be a real challenge, but luckily there is an answer.

A recent article provides a few pointers on deciding how open you need to be with your business. The main thing to remember is that openness in social media can vary. Just like a relationship, the key is to start out slow, and open up over time. The Community Roundtable has created a 4-stage chart that can help you decide where your company is in terms of openness in social media.

Remember, think of social media like a relationship. Put too much out there at once and you may drive business away; don’t put enough and people may be slow to notice you.

In this ever changing world of social media, it can be difficult, if not frustrating, trying to keep up with all the terms and applications. Luckily, Hubspot was nice enough to compile a list of 101 common terms used in social media marketing. Read this article for a convenient glossary that will hopefully make your day a little easier.

With so many people joining the social media movement, it is becoming necessary for businesses to begin interacting online with current and prospective consumers. If your business is not currently online, odds are one of your competitors is. Let’s face it, your business is here to make money, and social media is the new marketing craze.

One of the main appeals of social media is that you can reach mass amounts of people with very little financial cost, but that does not mean social media is free. While many of the social sites do not charge for membership, they do take time to set up and manage, and as the saying goes: “Time is money.” So how do you know if joining the social media market is worth the time? The answer is in the numbers.

In a recent article, author Angel Djambazov discusses the importance of measuring ROI in social media campaigns. She points out that over the next four years, social media is expected to have the highest rate of growth in any marketing channel. However, recent studies have shown that despite its rapid growth, CMOs are having trouble grasping the exact impact of social media, with 15% believing there is no ROI associated with sites such as Twitter. Without being able to show how social media can lead to dollar signs, it is likely your social media campaign will not get off the ground.

Making sure your CMO understands the benefits of social media is crucial, and one of the best ways to do this is by showing the numbers. By understanding how ROI and ROAS (return on ad spend) work, you can spot costs and inefficiencies, identify opportunities you might be missing, and know which budgets to renew. Read the full article to see how understanding the numbers can turn your social media into a successful market.