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While strides are being made in the social-media space, the newspaper and news business should continue to embrace social media.

Social media is the future, with employers recognizing they need to start hiring people with the right skills.

When I hear people debate the ROI of social media? It makes me remember why so many business fail. Most businesses are not playing the marathon. They're playing the sprint. They're not worried about lifetime value and retention. They're worried about short-term goals.

Importantly, companies are using social media to do things that go way beyond just chatting up existing customers on Facebook. Sales departments use social to nurture leads and close sales. HR posts job openings and vets applicants. Community and support squads mine networks, blogs and forums with deep listening tools.

Social media has shaken up the world of sales, with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offering new ways to hound leads and unprecedented insights into clients.

The leverage and influence social media gives citizens are rapidly spreading into the business world.

The world of digital media is being transformed. A bunch of new businesses can be reinvented, thanks to social graphs, the mobile internet, and the new shopping habits of the young. Those are going to create a whole generation of cool new companies.

When I graduated from college, I got a 9-to-5 traditional job doing social media for a company, and I'd spend all day long fighting with the system of getting things approved and the fact that social media has such a quick turnaround. Things had to be very reactive and instant.

The social-media landscape changes incredibly fast, so you have to be open-minded and nimble to keep up with it.

No surprise that, as companies have adopted social media en masse, demand for software and applications to manage and monitor social use has exploded.