“Dean Browell, executive vice president at social media strategy company Feedback, part of Worldwide Partners Inc, agrees that they are few businesses that would not benefit from being social.

However, he points that businesses themselves should not get too hung up on definitions of social media and social business – as their customers give it a second’s thought.

“Consumers just simply operate online and nearly everything they do contains some social element, peer validation or interactive possibility,” he explains. “The only part of social media that is a fad is actually calling it, ‘social media’.”

This isn’t the first time Dean has been featured across the pond. See what Dean inked in June 2011.

Socializing during business is a lot different today than it was years ago. Like, bigtime.

Who Won The #SXSW Battle?

SimplyMeasured took a look at #sxsw hashtag chatter on Twitter during the interactive portion of the conference to determine which products garnered the most buzz. The winners were GroupMe for messaging service, Foursquare for check-in service, and iPhone for mobile platform. View the following charts to see the breakdown of contenders.

Twitter By the Numbers:

This week, Twitter turns five. On March 21, 2006 @jack (Jack Dorsey) sent the first tweet. Five years later, around a billion tweets are sent within a week. Wow.

Here are some of the attention-grabbing stats listed on Twitter’s blog:

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

March Madness:

The madness has begun! NCAA Basketball fans, if you want to keep up with the scores or check your bracket(s) on the go, there are several apps you can use. Apps include ESPN Bracket Bound 2011 (for those in ESPN tournament), NCAA March Madness on Demand (Watch games live), and NCAA Fan Zone – March Madness (Scores) – and they’re all free.

Who’s going to take the win? According to a study completed by Zeda interactive, internet fans top picks include Syracuse, Duke, Kansas, and Wisconsin. So far, these teams have had the highest positive online buzz rankings.

Facebook Deal Subscriptions:

This week, Facebook is urging users to subscribe to their Deal service. With Groupon and LivingSocial, users learn about deals from daily emails and sharing among friends. Facebook appears to be trying to achieve this same stickiness, and is urging users to subscribe to Facebook Deals and invite their friends to subscribe as well.  Those who subscribe will soon receive news feed updates about local deals.

Free Reading:

I read an interesting article today titled “The Google Loophole Has Become The Facebook/Twitter Loophole.” It discusses how paid online news websites, such The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times (which just announced a digital subscription), actually have loopholes where people can read for free. The main point of the article is that this loophole is shifting from search to social. For example, The Wall Street Journal allows free access if you type the article name into Google. The New York Times mentioned yesterday that they will be offering a new type of “loophole” for Facebook and Twitter users. All readers who come to the NYT through Facebook or Twitter will be able to read for free.

Facebook Streaming Movies:

Warner Bros. is testing out streaming movies on Facebook with “The Dark Knight”. The movie rental costs users $3.00 (Facebook will receive 30% of revenues) and can be watched for 48 hours after purchase.  If the test goes well, we are likely to see more video streaming options on Facebook.

Foursquare v3.0:

Foursquare’s latest app version, v3.0, has some innovative new features. They have done away with the “tips” tab and replaced it with an “explore” tab. The explore tab will look at your information (where you’ve checked in, who you’re connected with, your favorite places to check in) and what you’re looking for (nightlife, sushi, etc.) to show you what Foursquare thinks you’ll like nearby. You will also be able to see how many of your friends have been to a recommended place, and what reviews have been posted about it.

The iPad 2 Available Today:

The iPad 2 has arrived. You can order it online now, and purchase it in store starting at 5pm local time. They will be sold at the Apple Store, AT&T, Best Buy, Target, Verizon Wireless, Walmart and select Apple Authorized Resellers. Starting early today, people were lined up at Apple Stores all over the country in hopes of being some of the first to get the latest tech gadget.

Image from CultofMac.com

SXSW Interactive:

South by SouthWest’s interactive portion was kicked off today in Austin, Texas. Five days of networking events, presentations, announcements and exhibits, all centered around emerging technology. For those of us who can’t be there, we can follow along with the hashtag #SXSW or visit our favorite social media news websites (such as http://techcrunch.com/sxsw/) for updates.

Japan & Social Media:

When a tsunami and an 8.8 magnitude earthquake tragically hit Japan this morning, many took to social media. Some families relied on social media to get in touch with their loved ones, and Google even launched a Japan earthquake person finder to help victims and families locate each other.

There has been an overwhelming amount of support spread though social media channels:

-Anna (@alucas9)

Here are my picks of the week:

Google’s Holiday Gift

Whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure this holiday season, the Internet provides a great way to kill time at the airport, especially when it’s FREE. This holiday season, Google is giving the gift of wifi. On Tuesday, Google announced that they were offering free wifi in 47 airports across the nation, November 10, 2009 through January 15, 2010. View the full list of participating airports here.

Tweet on LinkedIn

Last week, LinkedIn was testing out a redesign. This week, they’ve forged a partnership with Twitter. Now you can update your LinkedIn status on Twitter, or update your Twitter status on LinkedIn. View some tips from Mashable on how to get more out of LinkedIn here.

Gaming Gets Social

We’ve heard news that social networking features were in the process of being integrated into Xbox Live. In fact, the new Facebook and Twitter feeds will be available for Xbox Live next Tuesday, November 17, 2009. View a preview video here. What we didn’t know until it was leaked this week was that social networking features are most likely coming to PlayStation 3 as well. Although Sony declined to comment, there are still claims that Facebook may soon be available on PlayStation 3.

Follow & Wave

What was a Twitter trending topic for part of Thursday has become one of my picks of the week. On Thursday, Google added a “follow” feature to Google Wave. Now, you can follow or unfollow public waves you’re interested in and receive updates as they happen. Learn more from the official Google Blog here.

Control Your Groups

I have a few issues with Facebook Groups. First off, deleting a group is a hassle. If you want to delete a group you created, you have to remove all admins other than yourself, delete every member of the group, and then leave the group. Second of all, if you are the only admin and you leave a group, anyone can swoop in and take over admin responsibilities. The second scenario was proved all to well when hundreds of Facebook groups were highjacked. Luckily, they were only temporarily taken over by Control Your Info. Their goal: to stress the importance of controlling your information on Facebook.

-Anna (@alucas9)