Hosting a Twitter chat is an amazing way to interact with your fans and followers, to better understand and grow your community quickly, as well as promote your brand and business. I've seen the networking and promotional power of the Twitter chat, so I made up my mind to dig deeper. It's challenging to describe everything I learned in this one article, but I'll do my best.

Here's the all-in-one guide to prepare for and host your Twitter chat.

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Social media has long ceased to be a setting for primarily "social" interactions and discussions. Now social media platforms and services predominantly function as devices for businesses, entrepreneurs, and freelancers to market their skills on the web to a clientele that numbers in the hundreds of millions. Yes, the web is a marketer's paradise, where the smallest idea can reach countless people in the amount of time it takes for you to tweet it.

But in case you haven't noticed, the blogosphere is a big place, filled with entrepreneurs and ambitious self-starters who want to share their unique vision with the world. There might be a dozen small online enterprises specializing in selling supplementary educational apps to college students, all looking to be the biggest player in the market.

In other words, there's some serious competition in the realm of social media.

Read more about How to Stand Out in the Social Media Marketing Frenzy

Fewer companies are blogging these days, according to a new survey from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.Only 37% of Inc. Magazine's 500 fast-growing companies maintained a blog in 2011, down from 50% in 2010. Among Fortune 500 companies, the 2011 rate was the same as 2010: just 23%.

Why the low numbers? Once the Wild West of digital marketing, social media is no longer an unfamiliar arena in which companies swing blindly at everything in hopes of hitting something. But while it's fantastic that businesses are getting strategic about channel management, there's still plenty of opportunity for Fortune 500 companies in social media. They'd be wise to think carefully before calling it quits on blogging.

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It is possible to get addicted to almost anything. The most obvious candidates are things like cigarettes, drugs, alcohol, and food. But anything which causes some kind of obsessive behavior in even one individual has the potential to be addictive.

That includes the Web and, in particular, social networking sites such as Facebook. New research from the University of Bergen (UiB) suggests Facebook addiction is not only real but measurable using the Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale.

A research team led by Doctor of Psychology Cecilie Schou Andreassen classifies addiction to Facebook as "a subdivision of Internet addiction." The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale comprises six statements which are meant to be answered with (1) Very rarely, (2) Rarely, (3) Sometimes, (4) Often, and (5) Very Often. Answering with a 4 or above for four or more of the following statements may suggest an addiction to Facebook.

Read more about Determine if you're addicted to Facebook, with The Bergen Facebook Addiction Scale

Video producer Funny or Die worked with Pantene to create a video, "The Weird Science and Big Business of Working Girls in The Breakfast Club," a humorous tribute to the big hair phenomenon of the 1980s. The Pantene-Funny or Die video spoof was tied to the hair care brands's "Back by Popular Demand" campaign where it reportedly brought back previously discontinued products.

BMW attached its brand to a video series from The Daily, a digital publication designed for the iPad, Android, and Facebook. "The Ultimate Test Drive" features the show's hosts - Danny Dumas and Steven Leckart as they demonstrate an odd assortment of vehicles – from a Zamboni to a HydroBob. And The Onion's A.V. Undercover video music series, which features 25 bands covering 25 songs, scored Starbucks as a sponsor.

Watch the video at Pantene, Starbucks Sponsor Video Content With an Edge