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.

Dachis Group CEO Jeff Dachis delivered a rousing presentation/call-to-arms at the Social Media Influence conference. Here it is once again:

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.

Do The Green Thing founder Andy Hobsbawm stole the show at our recent SMI10 conference with a talk on creativity and its crucial role in building social media community and currency.

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.

When a tech giant like Microsoft releases a device specifically targeting the hundreds of millions of us who use social networks each day you might expect greater than 500 units sold

Apple’s mobile advertising scheme, iAd, hasn’t yet been released (that comes later today) and still it’s generating some controversial first impressions. Apple is claiming iAd will push mobile advertising into the mainstream and boost the branded …

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 …