Face it, we’re all suckers for a good list, a league table that ranks THE BIGGEST, the best, the most important. Marketers are no exception, of course, always trying to measure the ups and downs of the biggest/best/most important brands in our lives. The problem is the methodology to determine the best brand in the universe is questionable, at best. Now that we can measure Facebook fans and Twitter followers and YouTube subscribers can social media change all this? One firm thinks it can. And the winner is…

We’ve written a lot here about PepsiCo’s philosophy on social media, a philosophy that starts with using the public’s feedback to not only connect with its customers’ likes and dislikes, but to make better products and to possibly bring about some worthwhile change to the communities where we live. What’s next for PepsiCo’s social brand crusade? Crowd-sourcing the perfect Pepsi mobile application, apparently.

In an open letter to the media, “Leroy Stick,” the nome de Tweet allegedly behind the viciously satirical BP Twitter feed, finally lets us in on the big gag

So much of digital brand marketing these days resembles a kind of Blitzkrieg mentality. The marketing team enthusiastically jumps into social media channels, sets up a clever Facebook fan page, for example, and loads it with advertising goodies for their thousands of fans to digest. What happens next? The financial quarter ends and the marketing guys pull out, abandoning everyone. Facebook is littered with dead campaigns like this MTV and Honda joint promotion for the once loved “Roadies” TV program. When will marketers learn?

The Olympic Games sell itself, right? Nope. Alex Balfour, Head of New Media for the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games (LOCOG), promises to bring the latest social platforms to mankind’s oldest sporting event.

Roughly two-thirds of shoppers now scour customer online review sites before making a purchase. 57% of customers weigh up and trust the suggestions, tips, endorsements and criticisms of their fellow customers in determining whether to buy. Here’s a look at the future of social commerce

Social media may have been designed to give us consumers a voice, but are there legitimate limits to this new-found free expression? It’s a dilemma companies now face with alarming frequency, and it’s become a minefield that’s trickier than ever to navigate. It comes down to one basic question: is it ever okay to delete comments that appear on a company’s Facebook fan page, or on the corporate blog or in any open branded discussion forum?

So says PepsiCo’s Frank Cooper III, chief consumer engagement officer, who tells marketers that traditional advertising methods are outdated and risk turning off your best customers. Instead, PepsiCo sees a new approach in letting customers talk, share, suggest, and even tell you where you could improve. It’s where fellow consumers can gain insight and make their purchase decisions. Cut this conversation off at your peril.

Back from the long weekend and we learn on Tuesday morning that the latest online privacy protest, the “Quit Facebook Day” movement bombed over the weekend. What? You hadn’t heard?… Never mind. On this occasion of Facebook futility, we decided to look back at some of the lessons learned from those online movements that got the attention of the big brands and no doubt haunt corporate reputation management experts to this day, and those that, well, fizzled and died a quiet death.

If there was ever any doubt that social media had come of age the upcoming World Cup in South Africa looks like banishing those doubts once and for all. Here is the Social Media Influence guide to the World Cup official sponsors’ social media campaigns and how we think they might fare if there was a trophy for social media success.