I know we're running quite a bit about social media and developments in the media world and the impact for brands. It's because social media is transforming the way we communicate, first off, and radically transforming the future of business. So while we don't want to bore you, or make you feel that you're so far behind that you will never catch up - there's actually only a small percentage of people on top of the social media phenomena that has swept online communication in the past three years or so globally - this is probably the most important application of the Internet since email revolutionised communication. In the media industry it's probably as important as when man moved from stone tablets to writing on papyrus and making communication more accessible than the town crier moving from dorp to hamlet shouting out or singing the news! Research by one company, Melcrum, has shown that social media is not yet a part of an integrated communications strategy within companies or without, with less than a third of professional communicators globally using social media in their strategies. They just don't feel confident enough. The only way to learn, in my experience, is to practice, professionally or on a personal level: add comments onto blogs (blog aggregators Amatomu and Afrigator are a handy way to peruse local blogs), start a family or company blog on Blogger, Wordpress or the local sites offered by News24, Mail & Guardian Online etc, join one of the networks that your friends are inviting you to join such as MySpace or Facebook, explore Wikipedia, watch the vlogs on YouTube or locally, Zoopy or MyVideo or on news sites, or get onto Skype or start chatting over Windows Live Messenger or Google Talk. Anything. Just start somewhere. And look out for Chris Moerdyk's column Tuesday about what social media is doing to the media industry in terms of news gathering operations - are journalists a dying breed he asks? Keep warm! Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.co. All news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.co