BiggerPockets, real estate social network, has reached the big Five-O! 50 thousand members and growing rapidly throughout the U.S. and dozens of other countries.

“This is an exciting time for BiggerPockets,” says CEO and founder Joshua Dorkin. “There is a lot of competition for people’s attention and time on the web, so when 50,000 members give us a vote of confidence, it shows that we are accomplishing our goal of serving the needs of our audience and that we’ve truly become one of the premier real estate platforms on the web.”

The formula for BiggerPockets.com’s success, says Dorkin, is pretty simple in some ways: To cater to the interests of real estate professionals, investors, consumers and those just plain curious about how the world of real estate works.

The site offers tools to facilitate deal making, networking, education, marketing, and other transactional activities in the real estate realm.

“As happy as we are that we have reached this important milestone of 50,000 members, we are not content,” Dorkin says. “We are always working on new, innovative products to bring to our extended BiggerPockets family. In the very near future, we will be making some very exciting announcements that will rock the real estate world. Fifty thousand members is not an end point for us; it’s a starting point.”

BiggerPockets is a Denver based company, and a growing number of prominent news organizations and websites have turned to BiggerPockets for the expert advice it can offer. BiggerPockets has been featured by the following news organizations and websites: The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, CBS News Radio, ABC News Radio, CBS4Denver, The Denver Post, Long Island Newsday, USA Today, US News & World Report, Chicago Tribune, MSN Money, Reuters, Fox Business, and Google News.

Gartner has revealed its key predictions on the use of social software and collaboration in the enterprise. These predictions focus on offerings ranging from team collaboration to dynamic social networking applications that offer rich profiles and activity streams.

Gartner offers five key predictions for social software:

1) By 2014, social networking services will replace e-mail as the primary vehicle for interpersonal communications for 20 percent of business users.

2) By 2012, over 50 percent of enterprises will use activity streams that include microblogging, but stand-alone enterprise microblogging will have less than 5 percent penetration.

3) Through 2012, over 70 percent of IT-dominated social media initiatives will fail.

4) Within five years, 70 percent of collaboration and communications applications designed on PCs will be modeled after user experience lessons from smart phone collaboration applications.

5) Through 2015, only 25 percent of enterprises will routinely utilize social network analysis to improve performance and productivity.

As social networking grows increasingly pervasive, more employers are utilising these sites to screen potential employees. More than half (53%) of employers reported in a recent CareerBuilder survey that they use social networking sites to research job candidates. Another 12% plan to start using social networking sites for screening. More than 450 employers participated in the survey, which was completed in December 2009.

Of those who conduct online searches/background checks of job candidates, 43% use search engines, 12% use Facebook and 12% use LinkedIn. Three per cent search blogs, while an additional 4% follow candidates on Twitter.

Why Employers Disregarded Candidates After Screening Online

As job seekers gear up their search for employment in the new year, they are cautioned to be mindful of the information they post online and how they communicate directly with employers. Forty-three per cent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate. The top examples cited include:

• Candidate lied about qualifications – 38%
• Candidate showed poor communication skills – 31%
• Candidate made discriminatory comments – 13%
• Candidate posted content about them drinking or using drugs – 10%
• Candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information – 9%
• Candidate bad-mouthed their previous employer, co-workers or clients – 9%
• Candidate shared confidential information from previous employer – 8%

Why Employers Hired Candidates After Screening Online

Job seekers are also encouraged to leverage social media in advertising their skills and experience. Half of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them to hire the candidate. The top examples include:

• Profile supported candidate’s professional qualifications – 61%
• Candidate showed solid communication skills – 41%
• Candidate was well-rounded – 37%
• Profile provided a good feel for the candidate’s personality and fit – 28%
• Candidate seemed creative –24%
• Candidate conveyed a professional image – 22%
• Candidate received awards and accolades – 15%
• Other people posted good references about the candidate – 15%

“Social networking is a great way to make connections with potential job opportunities in 2010 and promote your personal brand across the Internet,” said Farhan Yasin, president of CareerBuilder EMEA.

In addition, once job seekers land a position, they need to mindful of their online usage. 48% of employers monitor employees’ use of e-mail and the Internet. 28% of employers reported that they have fired an employee for information found on his/her social networking profile. The most common reasons for termination were due to negative posts about the company or another employee, because they shared confidential information or because they represented themselves in an unprofessional manner (38% each).

Yasin recommends the following DOs and DON’Ts to keep a positive image online this year:

1) DO clean up digital dirt BEFORE you begin your job search. Remove any photos, content and links that can work against you in an employer’s eyes.

2) DO consider creating your own professional group on sites like Facebook or BrightFuse.com to establish relationships with thought leaders, recruiters and potential referrals.

3) DO keep gripes offline. Keep the content focused on the positive, whether that relates to professional or personal information. Makes sure to highlight specific accomplishments inside and outside of work.

4) DON’T forget others can see your friends, so be selective about who you accept as friends. Monitor comments made by others. Consider using the “block comments” feature or setting your profile to “private” so only designated friends can view it.

5) DON’T mention your job search if you’re still employed.

Seesmic has acquired Ping.fm, you can now update 50 social networks using Seesmic+Ping.fm from email, chat, sms, Blackberry, Android, web, Windows, OSX and much more soon.

Ping.fm has more than half a million active users who post daily from any device just by sending an email, a text message or chat – simple tools that existed since the early stages of the Internet are available on all connected devices. This is why Ping.fm is extremely easy to use and access – just send an update and it can touch on 50 social networks including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Ning, WordPress, TypePad, Yammer, Status.net and many more.

Ping.fm posts 200,000 updates a day and has 500,000 registered users. Rapidly gaining more and more members, Ping.fm is growing at a very fast pace and will help Seesmic reach this year’s goal of one million updates a day in 2010.

Ping.fm co-founders, Adam Duffy and Sean McCullough, are joining the Seesmic team full time and will keep improving Ping.fm as well as integrating it with our Seesmic applications. The number one request from Ping.fm users is to have more powerful clients support postings to their social networks, so they should be pleased to know Seesmic applications will be adding this functionality.

Seesmic is also welcoming ping.fm angel investors as shareholders and advisors Joi Ito (@joi), Reid Hoffman (@quixotic) who was already a Seesmic shareholder and Mohamed Nanabhay (@mohamed).

The Ping.fm acquisition enables Seesmic to deliver faster its vision of becoming your default application to stay in touch with your friends and constantly managing your online social presence. Seesmic applications got more than 3.5 million downloads and hundreds of thousands of daily users.

A family-friendly social networking site is calling for people to save the round-robin tradition.

People are often too busy to send an update of more than 140 characters but Dadooda.com is keen to give the festive letter a digital revamp.

Families are invited to set up a Christmas personal access library – also known as a PAL – and share precious multimedia memories with relatives all over the world.

“It’s sad that heart-warming traditions such as the round-robin are dying out,” says Neil Stapley, founder of Dadooda.com. “Websites and technology can give dwindling festive rituals a total revamp. Just as e-cards revitalised the sending of Christmas cards, Dadooda PALs can save the round-robin.”

Families can upload letters, videos, songs and pictures to their Christmas PAL, safe in the knowledge that only members of that PAL can view the content and comment on the message board.

“Pictures of a new house, videos of a newborn and thank-you letters from children are just some of the valuable memories that can be added,” says Stapley. “Grandparents in the UK can watch videos of their grandchildren in Australia opening presents on Christmas morning.”

Despite claims that technology only serves to isolate people socially, recent research has proven that sites like Dadooda.com are helping people communicate more than ever.

A study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that people who embrace new technology as a method of communication often have the largest and most diverse social network.