As the TNS survey demonstrates, knowing your market is vital. UK users are more likely to use brand pages for praise and to offer advice than for moaning (17 percent vs. 11 percent), whereas the Spanish and Argentinians are more likely to use a brand’s online presence to complain. Having the resources in place to capitalize on these behaviors, then, will lead to more positive brand awareness.

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.

Speak to any corporate comms honcho and they’ll tell you de-fuzing a Twitter #fail storm can be not just a PR headache, but can really sink the brand’s reputation. On the flip side, there’s no …

David Carr at The New York Times wishes someone would develop a media business model which would do for news what iTunes has done for the music industry. Seamus McCauley responds:
“… the analogy with iTunes is desperate, misleading, unhelpful, …