Common phrases heard are "follow us on Facebook" or "look for our tweets" which more businesses are starting to use.  The new social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are two great mediums which reach a lot of users.  The problem is that are people inundated with all of these new online social media tools it is hard to decide who to follow and on what platform.  The worst is on the news channels like CNN or Fox news.  I think the worst channel is CNN were you will hear follow us on twitter on almost every news cast on this station.  After a while you start to tune it out unless there is an added bonus for following a business on one of these platforms. 

        Win a chance to get $50 off our product or service when you "friend" and say you "like" us on Facebook.  These type of luring incentives will definitely help to weed out the bombardment of useless advertising people do on these social media sites.  Take for example people who use these sites to bombard people with useless information or people who want to follow or friend each other who don't even know the other person.  Again this seems like a waste of time and energy unless you are making some real connections or getting access to incentives like what some businesses are doing.  Some recruiters do say that social networking is a good place to get yourself out into the lime light if you are looking for a job or networking for business opportunities. 

        The other issue from the over use of these social networking platforms is communication.  I can't say that using these platforms is not communication because it is.  Someone I know a couple of months ago sent me a message on Facebook and then later in the month asked me why I did not respond to his Facebook message.  I did not see the message right away since I do not check my Facebook page all of the time.  More and more people are moving to social media platforms as a way of communication, which I think is a poor way to communicate.  Another communication issue is that people will stop communicating in person with certain people since they are in a conversation with a person online.  This is a new way of being impersonal and communicating which should be looked into carefully if people start using these platforms as their only method of communication with other people.