It’s official: the International Olympic Committee now has a Foursquare page, adding a badge to go with its aggressively trademark-protected rings. It’s picked up an impressive 14,500 followers in just a few hours, proving that even the tradition-bound dinosaurs at the IOC can eventually come around to the social+mobile+local draw of an international sporting event. There’s hope for other similarly skeptical organizations.

How confusing can the advertising picture on Facebook get? You know all about General Motor’s $10 million pull-out last week. That move, and the dud underwhelming Facebook IPO, prompted WPP chief Martin Sorrell to declare on Friday that Facebook is “one of the most powerful branding mechanisms in the world, but it’s not an advertising mechanism.” Fast-forward to this week and WPP’s Group M ad-buying unit has struck an extensive licensing deal with Buddy Media to “make it easier for clients to spend money there.” Confused?

The two biggest stories in digital right now are Facebook… and Facebook. On the eve of an IPO that could value Facebook at $100 billion we get word that automotive giant General Motors is pulling its $10 million Facebook ad budget on account of diminished returns. Is GM telling us something, that Facebook is a waste of money as a marketing opportunity? The answer: not so fast.

The online press is filled with Pinterest success stories on a seemingly hourly basis. Retailers are using their pinboards to drive traffic, others are using it to drive higher revenues per click, marketers are using it to create buzz for their new launches and lastly publishers are seeing it drive eyeballs.Turns out though that while the Pinterest pioneers have shown us a vital new tool to build engagement, we’ve yet to see the best of what this platform can offer, says Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp.

Goldman Sachs needs you. Well, one of you at least. The Wall Street juggernaut, the investment bank everyone loves to hate, is searching for a social media engagement specialist, we learned this week. To be sure, it’s a recruitment first for Goldman, which has seen public opinion around its brand hit new lows in recent months.

This could be the toughest job yet in social media: running Goldman Sachs’ largely neglected social media communities. That’s right, the world’s most reviled investment bank – a.k.a. “the great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity” – is looking to hire a social media community manager. Interested?

Engagement is the new currency for social marketing effectiveness, particularly for brands who are seeing renewed life on their Facebook fan pages ever since the new Timeline was introduced earlier this year. A new study out this week looks at which industry sectors are getting the most mileage (there’s one hint) out of their social engagement strategy.

Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the world wide web, believes data – yes, data – can save the planet. Of course this comes with a big BUT, and here it is: by harnessing our personal data we can “usher in a new era of highly personalised computer services ‘with tremendous potential to help humanity,’” but only if we can get access to it, he told the Guardian this week. The vexing point Berners-Lee pointed out is…

I’ve been speaking to a lot to communications professionals lately about how to update their crisis communications strategy for the Twitter age. It’s true that social media has completely changed the game for crisis comms pros as now the crowd informs the crowd about how a disaster, natural or corporate-made, is likely to impact their community. But smart companies can use this technology as well to improve their communications strategy with the public. Here’s another reason why.

A few weeks ago we wrote about the “mission-critical” importance of Tweeting business leaders. Why is that? Put simply, CEOs who communicate freely using social media are held in higher regard – not just by employees, but by customers too, study after study shows. An organization where the boss Tweets is an organization where internal communications is more dynamic and transparent. That then has an impact on external comms, or the brand image portrayed to the public.