American Apparel, the upscale basic clothing retailer with a cult-like following, has fallen into serious financial trouble in 2010, with sales sagging despite a reputation as an edgy brand popular with the “urban cognoscenti” and Facebook crowd alike. Meanwhile, Abercrombie & Fitch has been lowering prices and investing in social media as its primary strategy to stave off sales declines in this rough climate.

LG, the South Korean electronics manufacturer, is making use of Twitter functionality for in-house communication on a new company mobile application called BizTweet that has proved so popular it just start pitching the service to others. It’s a fantastic idea for improving informal communication and creative idea-sharing between employees. There’s just one problem. The idea isn’t exactly new, and there is already a Twitter plug-in called BizTweet.

Best Buy has announced that it would be trying out an advanced geo-location social shopping application called Shopkick for mobile phones in its US retail stores by October 1. From what we’ve seen, the app has a simple yet powerful rewards system with an ultra-sensitive location determiner to reward shoppers for walking around the store and browsing specific items. With this new level of geo-location shopping geekiness, Facebook moving to roll out its own geo-location service and Foursquare membership soaring, are we seeing the next digital battlefield forming on the geo-shopping front?

Gap offered a one-day social shopping spree last Friday for anyone who checked into its stores on Foursquare, with participants getting 25% off their purchase for the day. This is just part of a larger trend of retailers taking advantage of Foursquare’s increasing geo-social shopping utility.

Ad spending on social networks in the U.S. will grow to $1.7 billion this year and $2.9 billion in 2011, estimates eMarketer in a new report published today. That’s much improved on its previous estimates for 2010. Facebook is the major catalyst, but it’s but one driver. Here’s our take on which social media channels will be the primary drivers of social ad growth.

Lee Jeans is launching a new digital marketing campaign with Dirty Jobs’ Mike Rowe at the microphone, reports Stuart Elliott at the New York Times. Clothing retailers have proven themselves as an avant-garde force in the social media world. So can Lee, a relatively new presence in social media, get on the map through the “regular-guy” approach online?

Smirnoff Vodka, the biggest vodka brand in the world, launched a new ad campaign yesterday dubbed “The People’s Challenge” that is putting its brand up against the world’s high-end vodka brands in a social media taste test. It’s a gambit that comes with some risks. In seeking public comment via Facebook, the brand puts its image (and “drink responsibly” message) in the hands social media vodka lovers with some interesting results.

Three days after the most epic on-the-job resignation of the decade, the Steven Slater Facebook page has grown to 172,500 supportive fans. The mainstream press has been all over it. The Late Night With Jimmy Fallon show produced a song in honor of Slater, and even ex-autourny Headline News host Nancy Grace publicly cheered Slater on. But who’s the only one not talking about Steven Slater? Jet Blue airlines, one of the most social media-savvy and customer-friendly companies out there.

You have to feel a bit sorry for the JetBlue Twitter team today. Their most popular ever employee, flight attendant Steven Slater a.k.a. “the greatest American hero,” may be free from jail, but the company is in no mood to celebrate. Instead, the airline is parrying aside public queries from the press and even the occasional stab at humor.

BP petrol retailers are making a very slow recovery, as the rate of growth in the BP Boycott movement levels off, reports The New York Times. Whereas revenues were down about 30% at the start of the spill, the decline in sales is now around 5% for retailers across the US. With the oil well cap just about sealed and the worst apparently over, has the online Boycott BP movement mirrored the decline in business?