Three diverging news stories this morning bring the position of social media in business into focus – for a moment at least.  From California, Palo Alto Networks report that use of Twitter and Facebook in enterprise level businesses is up 250% and 192% respectively (which from Palo Alto’s firewall perspective means new security issues to be addressed.)

From social media rock star Pete Cashmore’s bedroom in Aberdeen, AKA Mashable, comes the news that Twitter and LinkedIn have struck a deal to share status updates, confirmation of the business potential of both sites, with the promise of further integration to come, not least because Twitter co-founder Biz Stone and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman are best buddies.

Thirdly, from San Diego and the Public Relations Society of America, via SDNN, Arianna Huffington of her eponymous Post urges PR practitioners, in the back lit transparency of the new media world, to be the moral conscience of their clients and “course-correct” if they look like going astray. This may be no mean feat with new media being “consumed, galloping on horseback” as Huffington describes it.

While we’re in the area of dramatic metaphors, the future of social media for business has been caught in the cross hairs of these three stories this morning. It’s very exciting, bring me my horse!

Here’s Stone & Hoffman talking about Twitter & LinkedIn:

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