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"How can brands do a better job of fostering these relationships so that they're at the forefront of consumer's minds? 1. Develop a great product. Not to resuscitate the Mac vs. PC argument, but there's a reason many people aren't hesitant to recommend their MacBook or iPhone to a friend. 2. Facilitate social sharing. Brands need to be engaged with consumers via social media, and brands need product sites and marketing programs that facilitate seamless social sharing. 3. Create sampling programs to reach digital consumers. Many influential digital consumers are eager to discuss their love of specific products and brands. Marketers need to reach and engage them in innovative ways, such as via sampling programs, contests, coupons. 4. Get game. Brand can introduce game element through badges, achievements, and prizes to turn their consumers to brand ambassadors and engage them in a fun way."

"A new report confirms the significant and growing influence of the Internet and social media in the shopping decisions of U.S. moms. In preparing to go shopping, mothers are 43% more likely to go online to gather coupons and 38% more likely to look at store Web sites than food shoppers as a whole, according to Packaged Facts' "Moms as Food Shoppers: Grocery Store and Supercenter Patterns and Trends" report.  Further, moms are nearly twice as likely as food shoppers overall to have used social media to plan their most recent grocery shopping trip (20% versus 11%). And in addition to consulting blogs prior to shopping, they are increasingly using mobile apps to ensure that they're getting the best deals while shopping. "

""If you think about the unique identifier - the cookie - it's just a way to identify a browser and then have the smarts behind it to serve a particular ad. If you have Open Graph data from Facebook, you would have to work through issues with personally identifying information, but you are essentially adding some behavioral data, which is what they are doing on their own site now. I don't know how far they could extend that, but there is a big push in the industry to start to utilize more sources of data for more specific targeting.""

"The site has three themes: Timeless Tiffany includes the story of Tiffany, including its diamond heritage, major milestones, masterpieces, drawings from the Tiffany Archives and a virtual hall of fame that showcases vintage ads and images of jewelry from every fashion era from the Gilded Age to the present day; Tiffany Insider, a gallery of images and videos that Tiffany says "captures the excitement and creativity behind photo shoots, dressing stars in Tiffany diamonds and unveiling windows that invite the imagination to dream of elegant new worlds"; and Tiffany In Style, which covers events and introduces designs in jewelry and accessories, along with advertising images and videos."

"Walmart began recruiting top Silicon Valley talent and acquiring start-ups last year. For instance, Walmart acquired Kosmix, a company that specializes in making web design more seamless, for $300 million. That team has been working for over a year to fix Walmart's systems and improve its website.  Walmart is investing in the "social gifting" market. A year ago, Walmart launched "Shopycat," which makes gift recommendations based on friends' Facebook profiles. The site is now called "Walmart Gifts" and allows customers to log in and get personalized recommendations based on Facebook and Twitter profiles.  The retailer got a better search engine. A dozen top engineers took 10 months to build it, and while the company won't discuss sales figures, they said the new system is more user-friendly. "If you search for cotton socks now, you'll actually find them," Manjoo writes.  Walmart is trying to lead the charge in same-day shipping. Its at an advantage considering that 96 percent of Americans live within 20 miles of a Walmart.  Walmart is investing like crazy in its mobile app. "Walmart imagines that as you go through an average day, you'll remember things you need--milk, bread, a new tennis racquet, a toy truck for your nephew's birthday--and tell the voice-enabled Walmart app. The app will list each item's location inside your local Walmart and include product info; eventually, it will also learn your preferences and offer recommendations. And once you're actually in the store, you'll be able to summon an associate to help you," Manjoo says. "

"Microcontent sharing takes this to the next level: What if you could break down an article into its constituent parts and share them independently? Perhaps one day aggregators could reassemble not just articles into a personalized newspaper, but also individual quotes, images and videos? I'm so excited about microcontent sharing that we've implemented it into the new Mashable.com. If you visit an article on the site and hover over an image or quote, we provide options to share that piece of content to your social networks. We hope to take this idea even further in future iterations, but it's a start."

"In the case of Electiongrams, NBC is relying on a start-up called Chute that provides back-end tools for large-scale photo management to brands and large media companies. Chute helps its clients pull in photos that people share through email or sites like Facebook, but also offers human and automated moderating tools."

"Instead of other sites where every place gets 3.5 stars, we come up with our scores using the same Foursquare magic that powers Explore. We look at signals like tips, likes, dislikes, popularity, loyalty, local expertise, and nearly 3 billion check-ins from over 25 million people worldwide. And, with every check-in and Explore search, our scores will get smarter and better."

"OrderGroove, a startup that allows brands to create subscription and membership commerce, has raised $7 million from Fung Capital USA, with additional investment from Lerer Ventures, Legend and SWaN Ventures, Allegro Venture Partners, Bee Partners, as well as former Walmart.com CEO Raul Vazquez and NEW Corporation's Chairman Fred Schaufeld. Brands turn to OrderGroove to add subscription commerce models to their e-commerce sites. For example, L'Oreal uses OrderGroove's SaaS to offer a monthly box of skincare products."

"Mr. Denton got some solace for the lost ad revenue: State Farm opted to sponsor the Tumblr blogs with the tag line "Backup Site Covered By State Farm" as well as information on how to file a claim. Insurers such as State Farm, Geico, Allstate and others are some of the advertisers that buy into disasters and have emergency funds set up to do so."

In certain locations, such as public squares, smartphone owners will be able to use an augmented reality app to project a virtual store - branded as Unlimited Yihaodian - over the top of their surroundings. Using the phone's accelerometer, customers will be able to move around digital rooms, displaying products available on Yihaodian's site, reports suggest. Account holders can then order items for delivery as they would if they were using the browser version.

According to Deadline, three different endings were filmed for this Monday's Hawaii Five-0, each featuring the reveal of a different killer. During the live broadcasts (both East Coast and West Coast), viewers will be encouraged to vote for whodunit via Twitter or the official CBS site - the winning ending for each broadcast will be aired in real-time. This could, at least in theory, lead to CBS airing a different ending in New York than in Los Angeles.

4 million users Springpad today announced a redesign of its personal assistant app that includes a socially powered search bar For brands and publishers, the notebooks are a way to make content marketing more mobile. The notebooks can be filled with how-tos, articles, and pictures for others to follow or embed on their own sites.

premium Storify!  brands can customize it Real-time updates: Publishers can now live-blog using Storify complete with dynamic, live updating of all stories. Custom story display: Ability to customize how Storify works on a publisher's site with full CSS styling options and unrestricted API access Enterprise-level support: Storify is giving priority technical support to VIP customers either by email or phone and an "enhanced Service Level Agreement" Custom sources: Publishers can now mix their own content, including posts, photos, or even comments into their Storify content by creating a custom source Private stories: Storify now allows publishers to share stories privately within an organization

Club Monaco's fall lookbook isn't making its debut in a print catalog or on a press-only site. Instead, the Ralph Lauren-owned fashion brand is releasing its lookbook simultaneously to the public and the media on Tumblr.

Amazon is hoping to extend its reach and integration beyond its own properties with yesterday's launch of Login with Amazon. The new service lets Amazon's 200+ million users to sign into websites, games and apps with their Amazon logins. Third-party developers can implement Login with Amazon on their web and mobile properties in the same way they integrate social logins like Facebook, Twitter and Google.