There have been an awful lot of disheartening media reports in recent weeks about the slow recovery of the US economy. But e-commerce has provided a consistent ray of hope.

As Facebook becomes more of an e-commerce destination, the social network is revisiting its bread and butter with a college-focused online shopping service.

That's an odd statement. Why would you keep doing something over and over again with the same negative result? It does sounds a little akin to insanity, doesn't it?

There is a wide variety of complex dashboards listening platforms from companies like Radian6, Nielsen and TNS Cymfony that allow marketers to listen to social media chatter day in and day out. However, you can't just monitor current social media conversations to get an accurate view of your brand's social media buzz. You need a beginning and an end to make a complete story.