We haven’t done a social media round up, or even a social media and sport round up for a few weeks now. There is absolutely no good reason for that so, without further ado here are six posts that caught our attention recently. I’ve tried not to make it a World Cup fest but there will be a couple in there!

1. Social media usage up 159% in the UK – Nathan McDonald

We all love to hear that social media usage is on the up (seeing as we spend a good chunk of time singing that tune to clients!), and this short post and infographic from We Are Social (via Nielsen) does a good job of showing that usage is up in the UK…and up quite a bit!

2. The Social Business Manifesto – David Armano

This post from David Armano was inspired by a post five years ago called the Social Customer Manifesto, but has been altered to focus on business in general and how businesses need to operate in the era of the social web and social communications. There are ten golden rules that companies of all shapes and sizes should pin on the wall. Check it out…

3. The Gradual Demise of Social Media Marketing – Louis Gray

This isn’t Louis Gray dissing social media, rather explaining (very well) that we need to stop treating social media as a special case and start including as a component of marketing and communications and getting rid of the shroud of mystery that still hangs over it. The video is below….

4. 13 Truths About Social Media Measurement – Amber Naslund

Amber Naslund at Radian6 knows her onions when it comes to social media measurement. This post addresses some of the myths and excuses that surround social media measurement and offers up some advice on how to start doing it properly.

5. There Are No More Blind Dates – John Jantsch

Business is all about relationships. Anything that can bring you closer to your client or customer or prospect makes life easier. Most people have a profile on one of the major networks, so there is very little excuse for not doing your research on the people you are going to meet. Sure, its not as fun as going on a blind date…oh wait, they aren’t fun at all and are much harder to win business from! Top post.

6. England’s World Cup Gaffe Gets the LEGO Treatment [VIDEO]- Brenna Ehrlich

Waited until the end to give you a World Cup post, and it isn’t really a post. More of a (awesome) parody in Lego of England’s hapless goalkeeper Rob Green letting a powder puff shot from Clint Dempsey of the USA squirm under him. England play their second game of the tournament in a few hours and we are betting Mr Green won’t be between the sticks! Anyway, check the video out…its very well done indeed

Come on England!

Decided to drop the ‘Friday’ tag as I keep missing the Friday deadline, it would seem! Here are the picks for this week.

1.    Will It Blend? – iPad – Blendtec

It would have been easy to go blind with all the iPad reviews over the past week so I thought it would be nice to kick things off this week with a video of one of them getting the blendtec treatment! Happy viewing!

2.    ESPN nabs Premier League mobile highlights rights – Stuart Dredge

Not that exciting for anyone not interested in digital developments in sport, but this one could have some big implications down the line. ESPN have been buying up all kinds of sports broadcast realestate and this week nabbed the rights to show Premier League football and rugby highlights via mobile. This is potentially a big market and an area the clubs should be seriously looking at in the future as devices and connectivity get better…there will be money to be made!

3.    Social Networks are Touchpoints for Customer Acquisition and Retention – Brian Solis

Some good stats here showing how online shoppers are active on social networks and looking to connect with brands if they are going to get some value in terms of interaction and probably a few offers here and there. There is a gap between the consumer activity on the social web and the number of brands providing a meaningful connection with them.

4.  The Problem With Conversational Marketing – Jason Falls

A good one from Jason Falls looking at the challenges of marketing ‘correctly’ through social media – its tough to try and sell someone something on a community platform where the audience doesn’t like salesmen…but does like interaction and buying! As he says, “its fun to explore”.

5.    Report: Corporate Fan Pages Increase Purchase Intent More Than Banners And Widgets – Neil Vidyarthi

Similar to #3 , This one looks at a recent study which indicates that brands allowing fans or customers to connect with them on a social platform, create more purchase intent than common ad formats. Anything that can exercise your customers brains a bit more than passively consuming a banner ad is going to have a positive effect!

6.  6 Ways Brands are Using Social Media For Real-World Action- Daniel Stein

Social media is still being used, by a number of brands and organizations, as a marketing and advertising delivery mechanism. However, there are more and more examples of it being deployed as a means to mobilize a community to take action…in the real world. This post has a look at some of those who are doing it well.

Entertainment, news and education. Yes, it has some of the capabilities of a laptop and a giant iPhone… and there may be some that want to use it like that but what it is absolutely going to dominate at, is watching movies, sports games, music events and providing a new, rich reading experience.

Erik Qualman writes an excellent post here about the possibilities for enhanced knowledge transfer for educational books through the iPad. Imagine no more scribbling in text books or getting a second hand Economics book with the notes of a D- student masquerading as useful insights (I am still bitter about that one!). Instead, you will get the best notes from the smartest brains, even the authors themselves and be able to search for complimentary information all in the same place – very cool.

The latest industries to be disrupted by emerging technology, music and print, can start to tip toe their way back in by utilizing these platforms. Will people (micro) pay to have their chosen sections of the Times, Sun, NYT, FT downloaded to their tablet each day so they can read it on the train without attacking the person sitting next to them with a load of paper – yeah I reckon they might. How about the latest blockbuster while they are on a 4 hour train or plane journey? Definitely. The highlights from their team’s win in the Cup the day before as they lie in bed on Sunday morning…yes please!

Don’t expect it to do something that already exists. If Apple are good at one thing then its leading innovation and I think the entertainment industry as a whole is the most obvious application for the ipad and it should present a wealth of opportunities for the producers and gatekeepers of the content.

The iPhone or HTC (in my case) are too small to watch anything longer than 15-20mins worth of footage and people don’t want to hump their heavy laptops around everywhere they go. The iPad (I should point out that I am yet to touch one!) looks the perfect size to consume entertainment and that means new business models can start to appear – micro payments, freemium, sponsorship, content marketing etc.

What say you?