ReadWriteBiz

How often should you post updates to Twitter for maximum impact? Is there a time of day that works best? What about a day of the week?

These are the types of questions that Dan Zarrella is constantly trying to answer. Instead of relying on intuition and hearsay, however, the self-described "social media scientist" prefers to take a look a look at things more objectively, using data.

2010 brought with it a number of security issues - new regulations, technological changes - for small businesses, and there are many indications that security will continue to be an important issue in the new year. Alongside increased threats will come increased scrutiny to data privacy and security issues. Indeed, we've posited that tackling security issues may be a good resolution.

Risk consulting firm Kroll has released its forecast for data security trends in 2011. The report highlights key areas in which businesses are likely to see significant changes in security laws, vulnerabilities, and protective measures.

Businesses have an extraordinary amount of online data to look after. Between Web analytics, social media metrics, email subscribers, CRM, customer support stats and project management, companies have at least half a dozen dashboards to log into and pull data from.

Geckoboard is one Web application that attempts to simplify this burgeoning overabundance of business information. It's a drag-and-drop dashboard that allows you to plug in various sources of data and display them on a single, simple interface.

While Wufoo may be known for easily building interactive forms for one's website, the service can also be used to streamline a company's internal workflow and even eliminate the use of paper-based forms in some cases.

The popular drag-and-drop, embeddable Web-form builder can, of course, be used for front-end things like collecting customer data through surveys, building up email mailing lists and even simple payment forms, thanks to integrations with PayPal, Authorize.net and Google Checkout.

Here are some examples of how Wufoo can be used behind the scenes to help keep your operation running smoothly.