We’ve published in the past some interesting pieces of social media research from Mike Schwede who has always taken an interesting look at how the public responds to and impacts the major stories of the day from the Greenpeace siege on Nestle to the shortlived love affair with Pippa Middleton. He joins us here for a look at some big observations for the year to come.

Greenpeace is up against the bad boys again, this time with the help of an online campaign that, in a break from the past, is mysterious and stealthy. For now.

Two weeks ago, Google told us that the most-watched-ever advert to hit YouTube is Volkswagen’s “The Force,” a spot released six months ago during the Super Bowl. In another sign of its impressive social media savvy, Greenpeace is using the popularity of that advert against VW this week with a spoof of “The Force” that calls into question the German car-maker’s green credentials and commitment to a low-carbon future.

We’ve chronicled here many times the impressive success Greenpeace has had in using the most public of social media forums to denounce environmentally destructive corporate practices by brands ranging from Nestle to Burger King and force them into a public about-face. Fast Company this week looks back at one of Greenpeace’s first major social media pressure campaigns – the Kimberly-Clark “Kleercut” initiative – in a tale that all companies would be wise to heed.

Greenpeace is stalking another corporate baddy, using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to amass a virtual resistance of over 600,000 signatures to pressure the polluter to cease-and-desist its carbon-heavy ways. Numbers-wise, this may be Greenpeace’s most successful social media pressure campaign yet. The problem is its target: the extremely like-able Facebook.

Rainforest Action Network is boasting today it successfully Punk’d Chevron in an elaborate “hacktivist” stunt that involved circulating fake press releases to the media and creating a fictitious Ad Age web story that portrayed the oil giant as repentant and ready to change. The ruse was timed to break hours before Chevron launched its own do-gooder ad campaign called “We Agree.” The tactic is dividing many. Do eco activists need to resort to untruths and masquerading as their nemesis in order to tell their story?

Greenpeace New Zealand has gone on the offensive once again, this time against Fonterra, one of the world’s largest dairy companies, using Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to expose its alleged destruction of virgin rainforest to cultivate palm kernel. By our count, this is the fourth major brand Greenpeace has gone after in this way in the past seven months; others such as Burger King and Nestlé quickly felt the pressure and caved. Will Fonterra be next?

According to a new piece of research by Custom Communication, “Social Media Screw Ups – A Short History,” along with the surge in social media investment comes a surge in social media screw-ups by major corporations using these channels to reach the public. 2010 is on pace to see more reputation-bruising social media gaffes than in any previous year. Haven’t they learned anything from the Kryptonite lock fiasco of 2004? Apparently not.

In what is being hailed a victory for the world’s rainforests, Burger King has dropped Indonesian palm oil producer Sinar Mas from its list of suppliers, the third major brand to cave to a Greenpeace pressure campaign that’s been stalking the corporate pages of Facebook over the past six months.

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?