We’re going off-base a bit this week and writing a blog article that toots our own horn. We don’t write blog posts about ourselves very often. However, we have done some good lately and would love to share our accomplishments with you. We can raise our glasses and cheers together as good friends often do. We’d also like to take this time to thank all of our readers and supporters. We couldn’t accomplish any of this without you. So, hat’s off to you, our readers and let’s toast to you as well!

With over 120 Million professionals on LinkedIn, it’s hard to ignore this business-oriented social media network. What can you do to make sure you are getting the most from your LinkedIn profile? How about read this list of 22 ways to get more leads from LinkedIn.

So what’s in store for social media this year? That’s what marketers and business owners are dying to know. We decided to provide you with some of our predictions for the New Year as well as some from other social media experts. We asked experts on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to weigh-in on their predictions for 2012. Today, we are sharing their responses with you. Take a look at the future of social media below.

When it comes to your social media plan, do you know what you should be asking? I’ve outlined steps to take to begin your social media plan in the past, but, before you begin taking steps to initiate your plan, you should ask a few questions. These questions will help determine how you will go about executing your strategy. You will learn what you are optimizing for and where you should be in social media. Below are some questions you should consider in the initial phases of your social media strategy.

We ask our readers what they want us to write about. Today we were asked to write about Yuri Wright, a star high school football player from New Jersey. Yuri Wright had a bright future ahead of him. He was planning on attending Michigan, courtesy of a scholarship. All his dreams turned sour when he was expelled from high school last week for posting many tweets containing vulgar language. His tweets were protected (private), but Yuri apparently had approved more than 1600 Twitter followers. Michigan pulled their scholarship offer after a concerned alumnus brought the tweets to Michigan’s attention.

Simply Measured offers Excel reports for your Facebook and Twitter pages.   I’m not just talking numbers in an Excel spreadsheet.  Simply Measured’s Excel reports are professional, “easy on the eyes” reports that include charts.  You can share your reports online or publish them to PowerPoint as well.

As of January 31, 2012, you will no longer see the Tweets Application on LinkedIn.  It will be removed from all profiles and the homepage.  The Tweets Application allowed users to keep track of their LinkedIn connections on Twitter, display recent tweets, and engage on Twitter directly from your LinkedIn home page.  Although LinkedIn states the application was barely being used, there is an outcry of people complaining about the changes.

Today's Reader's Spot Light question comes from Nathalie – Question: How do I handle simultaneously LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, without investing 24 hours a day into each one? Is there a way to make it more automatic?

Google is at it, again.  We’ve been advising how important it is to create your business profile on the king of search’s social network.  Now, more than ever, is a good time to get started. This week, Google launched some new features to its social search product.  These new personal results will be displayed in Google’s search engine result pages.  Google is calling it, “Search, plus Your World.”

According to their website, “Formulists is a list creation and management tool that allows users to effortlessly generate dynamic and personalized Twitter lists that continuously self-update.  Formulists-generated lists can be viewed or deleted from any Twitter client and will continue to self-update without the need to return to the Formulists website.”