At Tent Social, we are constantly pouring over the lastest updates in social media platforms and destination marketing related news.  With the rapid change of pace on social networks, it can seem almost impossible to keep up. So, in this weekly feature we will provide a run down of the MOST relevant changes in social networks that will likely affect you as a business.  We won't focus much on speculation, rather on bitsize links that give you the information you need to know to stay ahead in social media.

Business travel is not how it used to be.  Gone are the days of bottomless expense accounts and endless entertainment when away on business.  There has been a marked shift towards value and referrals versus high-spending and luxury.  

Apart from the major announcements about Facebook's new newsfeed and timeline designs, the Facebook marketing team has quietly removed some of the restrictions on how marketers can use a page cover photo, as reported by AllFacebook.com

Facebook has rapidly become the go-to social network for any consumer brand looking to engage with its audience on social media.  Hotels & resorts, in particular, have a unique opportunity as it relates to engaging with their guests on social media, since for the most part, hotels and resorts have very strong visual content to share and guests have a lot of experiences to share in return.

Updated May 15, 2013

Like all new technology, social media changes fast. Very fast.  Just trying to keep your head around all of the different platforms, how to approach them and, of course, how to design for them can be a full time job.  It would be nice if all of the platforms used the exact same dimensions and you could just swap photos between them all so that your brand has a nice consistent look across the board.

Someone always has something to say about their food, so not surprisingly, the restaurant social media space is pretty busy.

Blackberry (formely know as RIM) recently made its last ditch effort to reengage the world and prevent its stock from disappearing all together. There are countless articles out there that talk about the new phones and the OS and, generally, I think it all looks pretty good. 

Over the past couple of years, as large international entreprises have begun to realize the importance of social media strategy and marketing, there has been a new phenomenon that has sprouted up called a 'Social Media Command Center'.  These are generally great initiatives that can help hurdle organizations forward in the social media space.  That being said...

Facebook recently launched 'Graph Search', which on the surface seems simple, but it is in fact a massive opportunity for businesses in the long term.  To sum it up, Facebook has essentially updated the platform so that it operates in way that is similar to other platforms that have robust search functionality (ex: Google, Gmail, Wikipedia, OSX).  I won't dive in to how it actually works here (check out Mashable for a good run down), rather I will focus on the implications that it has for your hotel or resort.

Social media is no longer simply a trend or a fad, it is the new norm in communication.  2012 saw many stories explode on social media, some expected, some not.