Hostage-Taker Updated Facebook During Armed Standoff by Erik Sass

While social media has demonstrated its utility in all kinds of unexpected areas, some of the most interesting applications have been discovered by criminals, who use social media to perpetrate elaborate frauds, identify vacation-going burglary subjects, and steal online identities. And it seems like resourceful outlaws are finding new, surprising applications for social media every day. Here's a good one: social media as a communications platform in armed standoffs. No, really: according to the Associated Press, Jason Valdez, 36, took to Facebook via his smart phone during a 16-hour-long armed standoff with SWAT teams at a motel in Ogden, U ...Read the whole story

  • Microsoft Socializes Voice In Xbox Ads, Users Share Spots by Laurie Sullivan

    Microsoft has been working to bring voice and gesture controls to ads on the Xbox through the Kinect game controller. The platform will allow users to share ads through social media, get more information about products, and communicate with others through voice commands. ...Read the whole story

  • spirits Southern Comfort Lime Launches Social Hub by Karlene Lukovitz

    The concept: Helping SoCo fans to plan and interact throughout their nights out by consolidating a variety of digital activities in one convenient, cross-platform area -- while building awareness of the new Lime product through the hub's features and design. ...Read the whole story

The 90:20 Budget Conundrum: Are Marketers Unknowingly Reinforcing 'Social' As A PPC/Advertising Channel? by Rob Garner

We, as marketers, may be unknowingly reinforcing social as a PPC channel, while the greater opportunity lies in participation and content publishing strategies. But as search marketers, we've seen this movie before, and we know how it ends. So today I want to go over a loose history of the "ppc-ification" of the search channel as a much larger strategy, and how the same path may be happening to the balance of social participation vs. advertising marketing activities. ...More

  • 20 New Confessions Of A Foursquare Super Mayor by David Berkowitz

    Congrats, Foursquare, on reaching the 10 million user milestone. It's an impressive feat, as your momentum took off even as Facebook launched its rival check-in and deals programs. As for me, I still can't quit you. It was just a year ago when I listed 20 confessions of a Super Mayor after earning a virtual badge for being the most frequent visitor of 10 separate locations. Somehow, I still rank as a Super Mayor. On this occasion, with Foursquare's user count roughly six times what it was a year ago, here are 20 more confessions. ...More