Domino’s Pizza UK is attributing its 13% sales increase in the first half of 2010 in no small part to its social media prowess, specifically its integration with Foursquare’s location-based promotion system. But, as we know, correlation doesn’t necessarily equal causation. But the boast does have the web world buzzing: can a big social media push boost online sales so quickly?

Our man in Madrid (at least this weekend for the finals) has compiled the final installment of SMI’s analysis of World Cup 2010 sponsors. Each week of the tournament we look at which of the sponsors are up and which are down from a social media perspective. And the big winner is….

Is Twitter adding a new pay-for-followers scheme to boost sagging brands and would-be celebs? What about a new real-time analytics tool to make sense of up-to-the-minute conversation streams?

The Daily Mail last month may have been late to the Fake Steve Jobs Twitter ruse, but it got us wondering: is there anything real corporate chiefs can learn from their fake counterparts?

Three of the beverage brands sponsoring World Cup teams benefited the most in terms of increased online search traffic, according to a report released last week by Experian Hitwise. But are World Cup fans turning their brand Google searches into social media fandom?

How did Sony Europe move “beyond campaigns”? The company’s head of Consumer PR and Social Media, Ruth Speakman explained how social has helped Sony reach new markets, engage directly with customers that it otherwise would have never met and get insight on its business operation and performance.

With the semi-finals right around the corner, sponsors are gearing up for the climax of their World Cup brand exposure. But before you place your bets on the best World Cup sponsor check out the latest SMI World Cup social media sponsor chart – this week’s winner scored thanks to some exponential social media growth.

Mergers and acquisitions are generally accompanied by a cut-and-dry press release filled with turgid language of “synergy” and “win-win’s.” But in the case of Amazon’s buyout Thursday of Woot, the one-item-sold-per-day-on-the-cheap retailer, the triumphant announcement took another form – a homemade 90s-style rap featuring a sock-puppet monkey posted to YouTube.

In an apparent technical glitch, Facebook removed the “Boycott BP” page Monday evening leaving online activists scrambling for explanations and resurrecting what had been a movement that was beginning to go quiet. BP cannot be happy this …

Foursquare, the location-based mobile application, announced yesterday it scored a fat $20 million investment and a new funding partner, Andreessen Horowitz, the VC co-founded by Netscape whiz kid Marc Andreessen. What will the loss-making start-up look like …