Following on from its tremendous success last year, Virgin America ran its ‘Fly Forward, Give Back’ flash sale again this week. The airline encouraged flyers across the nation to bag a bargain seat and retweet, to help raise awareness and funds for the Stand Up To Cancer initiative.

Social media is radically reshaping how companies and organisations handle their crisis communications. At our recent #SMI11 conference, crisis communications experts Neil Chapman and Chris Reed offered a fascinating insight into the ways BP and Eurostar, among other companies, have learned from social media fallout.

If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no-one around to hear it, does it make a sound? Indeed, does it make any tangible difference to the way we lead our lives? Not really. What about the announcement of hugely ambitious environmental targets by a multi-billion dollar corporation? If there’s no-one around to hear that, does it make any difference to, well… anything?

As London descended into chaos last night, social media became the focus for following the riots’ latest developments.

With more social media screw ups than points scored, it’s no surprise many coaches and managers ban their players from Twitter and Facebook. Oklahoma State University, however, is using these online platforms in a ground-breaking way.

UK footwear retailer Footasylum is the latest merchant to open a store to its Facebook fans, and indeed, is one of the first in the footwear industry to do so. Footlocker – arguably Footasylum’s biggest competitor – has an enormous 1.35 million Facebook ‘likes’, and yet it’s Footasylum, with a mere 3,790 ‘likes’, that’s storming ahead on the F-commerce landscape – demonstrating that innovation isn’t just for the big boys.

Mobile-mad Europeans have truly become a consumer force, new research shows, as smartphones have now become a major traffic driver to retailers’ sites. The research also showed accessing social networks on the go is another favorite activity of smartphone users. As researchers point out, this is both a big opportunity and a major threat for brands.

America’s Deep South is no stranger to typecasting, and fast food sandwich chain Subway has capitalized on this beer-swilling, ho-down, redneck stereotype to promote its new Smokin’ BBQ Chicken Temptation Sub. And it’s taking the message to its social media channels.

eCommerce solution providers Zibaba have teamed up with Shopify to allow users to seamlessly create Facebook stores with full shopping functionality – and it’s just the beginning of the F-commerce revolution.

As the drought situation in the Horn of Africa escalates, humanitarian agencies are desperate for financial aid. They’ve got the social media tools, but are they using them effectively?