VATORNEWS — In Part One of our Social Media Marketing Series, we covered the fundamentals. What follows is a checklist of great social sites to leverage along with how to get it going and the content you can put into each spot: If you haven’t done it already, create a Facebook Page for your business (type “Facebook Pages” into the search box when in your personal Facebook account page to find the section, and then click on the “+ Create Page” button to get started). Once this is done, the obvious next step is to get people to become “Fans” of your business...

CNET NEWS — Elevation Partners, the Silicon Valley private equity firm that counts U2's Bono among its investors, announced Wednesday has committed up to $100 million in funding for reviews site Yelp. It's initially investing $25 million in the Series E round, and plans to increase the investment to up to $100 million through the purchase of stock from employees whose stock has vested, as well as other eligible shareholders. Elevation co-founder Marc Bodnick will join Yelp's board of directors...

INC. — On October 30, 2009, Diane Goodman logged on to Yelp.com. Like many business owners in cities across the country, Goodman had lately developed a small obsession with the website, which allows customers to publish critiques of local businesses. She had been visiting her company's Yelp page every day to see what her customers had written about her bookstore. Goodman found reading Yelp reviews to be emotionally wrenching -- but she also couldn't look away...

WALL STREET JOURNAL — How else can we say it: Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn as tools to promote your services and products online. According to a recent survey of 148 private companies by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research, 43% say social media is "very important" to their business and marketing strategy, 52% are tweeting and 45% are blogging. But don't feel pressured to jump in quickly and create a profile on every site. First, decide if it's right for your company. "Are you a social organization?" says Simon Salt, CEO of integrated marketing communications agency IncSlingers. "Everyone seems to know to have a Facebook page or a Twitter [account]. Is that what your business is about?"...

MEDIAPOST — The promise of social networking on mobile devices has triggered a flurry of partnerships and initiatives among handset makers, social networking sites and wireless operators. Exactly how marketers stand to benefit from the growing convergence of social media and mobile, however, remains somewhat elusive. For local businesses looking to tap into mobile social applications like FourSquare, Yelp and Gowalla, at least, Jeremiah Owyang of strategy consulting firm Altimeter Group has outlined steps for tackling this emerging market. These include things like offering special deals via social tools, catering to top customers and allowing mobile users to comparison shop more easily...