Twenty-seven minutes before mainstream media broke the news of Whitney Houston's death last Saturday the story was on Twitter.

The news was first tweeted by @ajaDiorNavy, with a mere 14 followers at the time, who's "Aunt Tiffany", an employee of Whitney's, found the diva dead in her bath.  An hour later it had been re-tweeted 2.5m times.

Last Thursday was national 'unfriend' day on Facebook, in the US at least! Although instigated by a comic, the now annual event has gained some resonance.

I, for one, am old enough to recall the real meaning of the word "friend" and know that having any more than six real friends is a right pain.

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Ever wondered what happens to your Facebook profile when you die?'

Don't worry, I'm in good health, my morbid fascination is prompted by Facebook's, soon to be released 'TimeLine' feature, currently in Beta.

TimeLine produces a sort of scrapbook of everything that has happened to you since you joined Facebook, at the press of a button.

To see a chronology of your life, automatically generated, is a spooky reminder of just how much data is kept about our online activity and is more than a bit creepy.

It's been a bad couple of weeks for TripAdviser, as the Advertising Standards Authority started investigating allegations of endemic Astroturfing on the famous hotel review website.

"Astroturfing", in an online context, does not mean the replacement of a lawn with synthetic grass, but the attempt to artificially create "grassroots" opinion on review websites in order to promote products or services.

The recent financial disaster at UBS brought another UBS story back into the news. Back in January a detailed dress code guide for UBS staff was leaked to much hilarity.

There was also advice on how to apply body lotion and perfume, on not eating garlic and not to have tattoos.

This was held up as an example of an organisation obsessed by detail and interfering in its employees lives.

A "fondleslab", for those not down with the kids, describes any portable touch screen device so beloved by its owner that it is incessantly fondled in public.

I swapped the faithful fag packet and lighter combination (which served a similar social purpose) for an iPhone a few years ago, but now, to keep down with the kids, I need an iPad 2.

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Chris is MD of social media strategy company Friend Digital

Our old friend, "a recent poll" has indicated that most ad-executives and marketers just want to be liked!

Resisting the temptation to explain why they are not and possibly send this column down an un-publishable route, I must clarify that it is Facebook 'likes', for their clients fan pages, they are after.

Read last weeks column to find out why.

Chris Tomlinson is managing director of social media and online PR agency Friend Digital Ltd.

I have been living France for the last eight weeks and thanks to social media no-one seems to have noticed.

A few of the favoured hostelries around Brindleyplace are down on their profits but largely nobody seems to care about my physical absence.

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I saw reported in the Post last month that our intrepid restaurant critic was taken aback by the proactive way Carluccios responded to criticism (incidentally their restaurant in Stratford is one of my favourite places!) so I hereby offer one of our largest companies the same opportunity. It is in fulfilment of my brief to name names and my previous attempt to bring down the dreadful online shopping business La Redoute has either failed as they are still in business or perhaps I succeeded and they have made major changes? Either way, I wouldn't know because of course I don't shop there any more. So I am now going to direct my attention to a local supermarket in the hope of assisting the new(ish) CEO Philip Clarke understand where there might be a weakness in the juggernaut that is TESCO.