Social media is all the rage in customer relationship management (CRM) these days. It even has its own tag: SCRM. Still, it remains a double-edged sword for the business world. Despite its newfound popularity, the flourishing of an army of “experts,” and the plethora of how-to information on the Web, some companies still don’t get that social media is a tool best used gingerly to attract and retain customers -- and not as a hammer to pound home a company message.

Search advertising works, perhaps too well. It's easy to use, and the results are easy to measure. That's led many midmarket companies to allocate large chunks of their marketing budgets to search advertising, but while this approach may garner results now, in a few years, an overreliance on search advertising may leave you wondering where all your customers went.

The fun thing about the Internet is that there is always something new coming along. And the really annoying thing about the Internet is that there is always something new coming along.

Social media is, depending on who you talk to, anything from the next killer application for business to a "social not-working" opiate for the masses. It can be a marketing boon, a giant productivity sinkhole, and a potential source of network and information security woes -- all at the same time.

For businesses that offer their employees access to the Internet via company-provided computer and communications systems, the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case of City of Ontario v. Quon, No. 08-1332, may be significant.