John Adams

Social networking has become so common and broad-based in its use that banks have no choice but to incorporate social networking into their marketing efforts. Here are five ways they can do that.

The latest incarnation of TD Bank's buildup of a broad social media program for North America -- the embedding of Twitter staff within the contact center -- is only a few months old, but the bank has already discovered the formula to win an impressive spike in the use of social media to resolve customer queries.

Many consumers don't know what near-field communication is, but the services the technology enables are becoming quite popular. That puts an onus on mobile payments projects that use NFC to move beyond disputes over revenue and other issues.

Advisors may want to heed stats noting that Android and iPhone are crushing BlackBerry when it comes to business use and app development.