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Amy Webb wasn't planning on starting another business. But two years ago, as revenue-strapped newspapers began closing down or laying off staff, the former reporter and editor turned digital media consultant decided to step in and help her former colleagues.

Webb, who was already running a successful company geared toward bringing traditional media organizations up to speed with digital technology, pulled together some of her fellow consultants and scheduled a free webinar for recently laid off journalists. Not long after the two-hour primer on must-have digital media skills ended, Webb and her colleagues started getting emails from would-be participants begging to know when the next one would be. By the second webinar, 50 participants had ballooned to over 200, and a third session had 600 sign-ups.

Bump, the innovative mobile app that lets you exchange contact information by bumping your phone together with someone else's, just announced the availability of version 2.0 in the iTunes app store. The app is newly redesigned and has added some features that are simply awesome.

The app uses your phone's location and accelerometer features to send a signal to the Bump server whenever the app is running and your phone shakes. If Bump detects that two users have their phones jostled in the same place, at the same time, the service presumes those two people want to exchange contact info. It's a great little system, and with the new version users can do even more.

As an early adopter of an unknown service called "The Facebook" back in 2004, it is impressive to see the growth and change that has come to the site. When many of the earliest members joined, a university email address from a select list of institutions was required to sign up. Eventually, nearly every college was opened up, then came high-schools and after that - everyone. Today marks another significant milestone in the history of the Web's most popular social network as Facebook has passed the 500 million user mark.

Miio is a new microblogging service which is a bit like a mashup between Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook and an RSS reader. Now typically, we don't like describing services as a "it's like a this plus a that," but Miio is precisely the kind of service that needs a little help in the "what this is" department.

Don't get us wrong, the concept itself isn't bad: a discussion board built around interests as opposed to popularity. It's just that the execution makes the service seem a little confusing.

So what is miio? That's what we're trying to figure out today.

In a move certain to please small and medium business owners, social media management platform HootSuite announced today the addition of new features to help users learn more about their Twitter followers.

Using the influence scoring algorithm developed by Klout, HootSuite allows users to sort their followers by who has the most influence on Twitter, enabling companies and brands to better prioritize their Twitter conversations.

A large majority of companies are moving away from job boards and toward social media as their primary recruiting tool, according to annual survey results released by social recruitment software company Jobvite.

The report, entitled Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2010, was based on an online survey taken by 600 participants between May and June.

When Google announced the launch of the new Buzz API yesterday at the Google I/O developers conference, I spotted an application in their partner lineup which hadn't yet crossed my radar: Vinehub. After having initially spotted their logo in the Google blog post containing details regarding the official announcement, I clicked through to the Buzz Featured Apps page to check it out. But here, the service was nowhere to be found.

A visit to Vineub.com satisfied my curiosity, though. It appears that Vinehub is a new social network aggregation application, in the same line as FriendFeed or even Buzz itself, except with one major difference: it doesn't just pull in updates for liking and commenting, it sends them out too.

Why can't privacy and connectedness go hand-in-hand? That's the question being raised by those behind the new Diaspora project, an ambitious undertaking to build an "anti-Facebook" - that is, a private, open source social network that puts you back in control of your personal data.

Envisioned by four NYU computer science students, the Diaspora project would replace today's centralized social web (yes, they mean you, Facebook) with a decentralized one, while still offering something that's convenient and easy for anyone to use.

Building strong networks and developing meaningful relationships are cornerstones to business success. Although it may be a cliche, "who you know" can be incredibly important for startups.

With the growth of social networking sites, it seems easier than ever to develop a sizable network of connections: Facebook friends, Twitter followers, your Google social circle, your LinkedIn connections. But having a large social media network means little if you do not maintain these connections. It is important continue to meet new people, cultivate existing relationships and to emphasize the quantity rather than the quality of your connections.

It is widely accepted that social media has transformed the landscape of marketing radically, and no longer can businesses - no matter their size or stage of development - afford to avoid social media. While the importance of developing one's brand online remains paramount - most obviously through the registration of a domain name - the proliferation of social media platforms can be overwhelming, and startups might feel compelled to register and interact with every service in order to quicken the spread of their name.