Facebook - the all encompassing giant of social media seems untouchable at the moment. Even Google's might couldn't touch it in subscriber number terms. However, like Apple and Microsoft, the Beatles and the Stones, or even Daz and Persil - competition is good.

Of course, Twitter is competition, but a different sort of competition. It doesn't offer the same breath as Facebook and so resigns itself to a different space in the social media sphere. One thing of interest however is the thought that the next social media revolution will be niche.

Studying somebody’s reputation on social media is an interesting and incredibly up-to-date method of gaging public opinion. When a new story breaks, thousands of people instantaneously post their reactions, which means the line between flavour of the month and its bitter after-taste has never been finer. Below is a round-up of the most lauded (and reviled) individuals on Twitter this week.

Keeping the customers you already have, who are happy and content with your business, is more important than gaining new customers. Maintaining old customers and keeping them on side can be achieved through a mixture of providing them with great consumer service and helping their businesses. By using wise Social CRM and also by increasing the value they receive from their customer experience through social listening - you can really keep them onside. 

Back in March we discussed the implications of customer complaints on social media, advising that the worst thing your company can do is ignore complaints or disable the wall in order to discourage negative customer interactive. Today, we’ll be taking this a step further and looking at the numbers involved in consumer interaction with social media channels and brands.

While the BlackBerry brand remains synonymous with business users and business apps, Google's Android operating system is becoming more and more prevalent in offices across the country. 

This is chiefly because of the increasing trend toward 'bring your own device' policies implemented by businesses. Now that smartphones are finding their way into everyone's pockets, it much more cost-effective to simply support employees who want to bring their own handsets, rather than shell out for expensive contracts with RIM. Because Android has been the prime catalyst for the growth of smartphones, it's therefore not surprising that most of these new devices popping-up in offices are Android-based. 

So with that in mind, what are the 5 best productivity-boosting Android business apps on Google Play? Of course, there's always going to be room for argument on such lists, but here's my opinion for what's it's worth.

The biggest news this week has to be today’s announcement that Microsoft’s Bing has integrated Facebook into its revamped search engine. The new-look search will now be split into three sections, with web search results appearing to the left of the page, an information pane in the centre and a Facebook-style ticker to the right of the results.

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Everything that goes up must come down and it seems the laws of physics have hit Pinterest in a big way. After the success of the Jan/Feb period it seems that the site has flagged somewhat in April and is in fact now losing users.

AppData, which monitors the number of people who have signed up through Facebook has shown a 50 day continuous drop in use. The fall from 11.3m users in March, to 11.15 in April took a real tumble to 8.3m by the 20th of last month, it seems. 

Though the first three months saw Pinterest explode, it seems that the boom has subsided as it is no longer the in thing it once was. So, why has Pinterest interest dropped?

Social media is headed for the stars.The Gliese 667 star system, in the Scorpius constellation, to be precise.Conceptual artist duo Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern are currently in the process of funding a project that will see them transmitting messages from the micro-blogging site Twitter to the exo-planet GJ667Cc. In English, that’s the closest planet to Earth which is theoretically capable of supporting humanoid life.

Facebook's been at the centre of a number of mess-ups in the past, which in many cases, have resulted in a notable public outcry against it for whatever reason.

Though, the site allows people to connect with friends in an open way, its privacy policies have been among the most controversial areas and have seen it ostracised on numerous occasions.