Are you prepared for the seismic shifts of digital/social/mobile transforming the business world, where the referral economy teams with the power of mobile computing to create tomorrow’s winners (and losers) in retail, publishing, marketing, communications, you name it?

A billion dollars for a 13-person app-making startup that’s never made a dime? That’s the headline head-scratcher coming out of yesterday’s blockbuster acquisition of the super-popular photo-sharing app Instagram by Facebook. But take a closer look at the numbers and you see what Facebook gets out of it: a global, mobile powerhouse.

Last month, The Guardian delivered a “seismic” piece of news that got publishers everywhere to rethink the value of social traffic when it announced that Facebook had overtaken Google as its primary source of traffic. Today, we have another example of Facebook’s traffic-driving prowess, this time in the e-commerce sector.

There’s something quite wonderful about conducting day-to-day office admin while out and about: sipping a coffee and people-watching, perhaps. Or soaking up the rays on a luxury yacht on the Med (we wish). Long gone are the days when business-folk were chained to their desks, or made to lug heavy slabs of creaking technology around. Nowadays it’s all so streamlined and easy, as these new apps show.

A few months ago, big brands and publishers were scrambling to create a Google+ presence. Six months in, has all that trouble yet begun to pay off in greater traffic and daily interaction with fans? A new study, looking at the UK’s daily newspapers market, has some insights.

The Obama Administration in Washington has passed a series of consumer protections for web consumers that looks eerily European: something closer to an opt-in regime that calls for greater transparency on how user data is used and a do-not-track-option.

You might remember this scene from the 2010 Oscar-award winning film “The Social Network.” Four young coders tap away at their laptops, face-off style. Every few seconds, or so it seems, one of the combatants downs a potent shot of cheap booze then resumes tapping away. Around them the cheering hits a fever pitch until… breakthrough! Code cracked. “Welcome to Facebook,” the Mark Zuckerberg character greets the victor.

Google raised the stakes this week with its biggest ever tweak of its search algorithm, this time giving additional weight to content created/vetted/linked/+1′d from our network of friends, family in our search query results. It’s a move that could determine the success or failure of your social media strategy.

The big news in this announcement, though, is really what’s going on with brand pages. A bit late to the party (Google+ has recently announced brand pages and Facebook, well…), Twitter now promises new features to marketers that will offer the potential to interact and engage with followers even more so than previously

Last week I was asked to deliver a presentation on social SEO and what Google’s search formula tweaks now mean for brands and organizations looking to boost their visibility. This is a rapidly evolving issue, but there are some enduring points here that all organizations (and journalists too!) should keep in mind. Hopefully this guide will help you.