Old Spice Grover

This is an example of a commercial going viral.

Old spice Grover

Here is an example of a commercial that has gone viral.

Qwikster dies quickly

It looks like Netflix will not go forward with their plans to spin-off and rebrand their DVD division as Qwikster.  I actually got this news in an email yesterday sent from Netflix, addressing me as "Robert."  Of course they know me so well, except they don't know that no one every addresses me as "Robert," twice.
Perhaps their decision is due to customer complaints, perhaps it is due to the fact that they didn't secure the domain name for Qwikster; in any event, it has proven to be a PR disaster for the company.  Netflix used to be viewed as a tech-savy brand, but the now the brand is tarnished.

Whole Foods New Media mix

The Whole Foods company has integrated all of their social media into a single porthole.  From this site, you can read their blog, what Youtube videos and listen to their podcasts.  In other words, the site provides example of how this specific corporate is using new media.

Big Brother

Here are a couple of stories about the way Facebook is being used to track our behaviors.  Mobiledia reports on a study of how college students' Facebook posts may indicate which students are at risk for "alcohol dependence."  The report raises the possibility that colleges may use Facebook to track student drinking behaviors.  Although the article suggests that colleges can adopt strategies that would not violate their students' privacy, how this information might actually be used is still uncertain.

The story also mentions that federal regulators (specifically the FTC) have approved the use of social media data to screen job applications.  This practice used to be a legal grey area, but not any more.  Finally, here is a story on Forbes.com about the extensive use of this practice by companies.  Back in 2010, Microsoft Research released a study indicating that 70% of employers rejected candidates based on social media data.  Now Reppler has released a study with similar findings.  Reppler is a company that makes its money by cleaning up the people's social media accounts so that they are more professional, and attractive to employers, so  . . .  there's that.

Blog measures

Here are the links to several blog measurements mentioned in the reading:

Technorati

Alexa

BlogPulse

Digital Influence Group