No, we’re not talking about this page. Ford Motor Co. has been running the ultimate give-away promotion in the run-up to the relaunch of the 2011 Ford Explorer. If enough people click “Like” on the official Ford Explorer Facebook page then one of those fans earns the chance to win the brand new SUV. We’ve seen other “Like” give-aways before, including for fancy lingerie that succeeds in amassing a quick surge of bargain-hunting fans. But what could the chance to drive home a brand new $30,000 car bring in in terms of new Facebook fans?

In the growing list of social media marketing #fails, Coca-Cola’s recently pulled Dr. Pepper Facebook campaign marks a new twist on an old marketing axiom: never underestimate your most influential market — moms. Mommy bloggers trump all in influence. That much we know. The Dr. Pepper campaign also proves they even understand raunchy porn references that get giggles from the guys in creative, but go over the heads of the starched shirts in marketing. Busted!

Many of you have commented on the one-on-one interview we did recently with Alexandra Wheeler, director of digital strategy at Starbucks. We thought we would also point you to her full SMI keynote presentation where she details how Starbucks built arguably the most successful social media brand marketing strategy. A hint: “it’s about relationships, not marketing,” she says.

I had the chance to speak to Ruth Speakman of Sony Europe on the sidelines of Social Media Influence where I posed the question: how did you get “social media” in your title and how is Sony Europe implementing this social discipline across such a vast organization? This is what she had to say:

In this week’s insightful guest analysis, Headshift director Lee Bryant argues that social business design may yet succeed in making IT departments relevant and useful within companies.

As the tech press (and Diane Sawyer) prepare for the imminent, champagne-filled announcement of Facebook eclipsing the 500 million user barrier, we hate to be killjoys here at SMI but we feel it necessary to point out that the first 500 million, that was the easy part. For Facebook, the vast unconquered terrain lies in China, Japan, Korea and Russian-speaking countries where Facebook is an also-ran.

The mobile apps marketplace will top a staggering 25 billion downloads by 2015, according to new research by Juniper Research. To put that in further perspective: the estimate is that smart phone sales will reach 1 billion annually by the same period. That’s an impressive number of downloads per handset user.

Can the publishing industry be saved by the apps revolution? Will it be in the form of subscriptions or heavy-trafficked free apps? Bernhard Warner, editor of SMI, had a chance to speak to put these questions to Jonathon Moore, Mobile Product Manager for the Guardian, in a one-on-one interview at Social Media Influence conference 2010

The London 2012 Olympic website is expecting an astonishing 10 billion page visits by the end of the games, making it one of the most visited web sites ever in the world of sport. But there’s one fickle group that still must be won over: videogame-obsessed teens.

Earlier this week we reported how Starbucks hit a new milestone in social media marketing, the first brand to surpass 10 million Facebook fans. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to interview Alexandra Wheeler, Starbucks’ director of digital strategies, on the sidelines of the Social Media Influence conference.