As social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter continue to grow, some people wonder if having (and needing) an email address will soon be a thing of the past. That's not something that we should be too concerned about. Matter of fact, there was a recent article that reported that there are millions of people that are either leaving Facebook or only check their account once or twice a month. These same people probably have an email address, and it's highly doubtful that those individuals will shut down their Yahoo, Gmail or Hotmail accounts any time soon. Why? Because if you want to (personally) connect with others in cyberspace, you need an email account to do so.

At one point or another, we all have considered making some sort of investment. Correction: At some point in our lives, all of us_ do_ make investments, whether it's of our time, our efforts or our resources. The thing is, when it comes to making a wise one, we must get all of the information that we can beforehand about how much time, effort, resources, money or capital that we should put into a particular thing in order to gain the kind of return that we seek.

Whether you're new to the idea of using social networking on behalf of your small business or you've spent the last couple of years busily learning the ins and outs of search engine optimization while doing all you can to beef up your Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare followings, you may be missing out on the bigger picture if you have yet to partake of social media monitoring. I know, I know - it's one more thing to tack on to an already overfull schedule. But by listening to the buzz online, learning what's trending, and finding ways to act on that information you can actually streamline your strategy and save yourself a lot of time and effort in the long run. So here are just a few tips to help you get going with social media monitoring.