Samsung today announced the availability of Samsung Corby S3650, a mobile phone designed to support the digitally connected lifestyles of today’s young mobile users.

The Samsung Corby is a full-touch handset that places users at the center of the social media revolution with a wide range of social networks support, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace.

The Samsung Corby is notable for both its body design and colors – which mark a significant break from the way full touch phones are usually designed. It is available in bold color options such as Jamaican Yellow, Cupid Pink, Minimal White, and Festival Orange so that users can choose their favorite colors…Read more

Ford and Ford Fiesta agents are definitely doing something right. A journey which started on the ever-expanding social media with more than 4,000 applications submitted, with an excess of 640,000 views of applicant videos on YouTube. The Ford Fiesta also is gaining attention on Facebook and Twitter, with more than 300 fans on the Fiesta Movement Facebook fan page and more than 600 followers on the @FordFiesta Twitter account.

“We got a tremendous response from consumers, a lot of exciting people decided to apply,” said Sam De La Garza, small car marketing manager. “Choosing the 100 agents is a critical step in the movement, pulling us one step closer to getting people in the vehicles.”

The Fiesta Movement campaign is squarely aimed at Millennials, the next-generation consumer group born between 1979 and 1995. These consumers, which will total 70 million drivers by 2010, use social media daily and offer a prime opportunity for Ford to tap into a group that hasn’t yet established brand loyalty. According to statistics from a Microsoft study on Millennials, each day 77 percent use Facebook, MySpace or other social networking sites and 28 percent access a personal blog.

“Our group of agents is a broad cross section of people from across the country who are active in all areas of the social media space,” said Connie Fontaine, Ford’s brand content and alliances manager. “It’s a strong team across social networks that are geographically and occupationally diverse.”

The chosen agents are socially vibrant, unique and able to tell a good story. They come from all across the country and work in a variety of occupations. But most importantly, they have established social networks with a strong Web presence. Most have hundreds, if not thousands, of Facebook friends. There also are thousands of people following them on Twitter.

“We’re engaging outside sources that live in this space to make sure we are pushing the limit as far as we can,” said Fontaine. “By working with them, we will maximize the exposure of our content online, while at the same time receiving valuable feedback from the agents about our new car.”

Wanna cruise with this Fiesta trend setters, follow the Fiesta movement on:

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/fiestamovement

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fiestamovement

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Fiesta-Movement/73386615309

Twitter: http://twitter.com/fordfiesta

 Omniture, Inc. (NASDAQ: OMTR), a leading provider of online business optimization software, today announced a new feature for Omniture SiteCatalyst customers that allows online marketers to measure brand activity on the popular microblogging site Twitter. In addition to delivering new insights to marketers, this announcement demonstrates the power of the recently announced Omniture Genesis APIs, which allow developers to integrate Omniture’s open platform with external sources for a deeper view into the expanding influence of online business — in this case an important measure of consumer sentiment around brands and product…Read more

Engauge, a total marketing solutions agency, has tapped digital pioneer Chad Israel as the agency’s Director of Social Marketing. Israel will lead the social and emerging marketing initiatives for Engauge Digital in Atlanta, Georgia.

“Chad is a unique talent who brings a deep understanding of how brands can connect with their customers using social media…Read more

Despite the fact that the current social media ecosystem supports near-instant vilification of people and companies, few organizations have put systems in place to either identify an issue or respond in a manner timely enough to offset the potential damage. Implementing social media channels is no longer just a cool thing for a company to do. It could be a matter of survival…Read more

Yahoo on Wednesday reveals its Web TV  partners to bring about its internet and television “convergence” hoping that their initiative will finally connect  with consumers.

According to Yahoo, the application will employ the use of widgets which will allow viewers more interaction with programs they are watching…Read more

LAS VEGAS (AFP) – MySpace has expanded its popular online social-networking service from computers to television sets with technological help from chip maker Intel and Internet pioneer Yahoo!

A MySpace widget, or mini computer program, embedded in certain new television models will allow members to watch TV while connecting with online profiles and friends, according to the News Corp.-owned Internet firm…Read more

It’s 2009…. Yiha! I was reading Matthew Schwartz article on Biznik and I found his points quite interesting to share. He probably might be selling more audience to Ning and Scribd, but trust me he sure brought out useful information… read along.

Social Media Networking continues to grow as a primary way to find niche audiences. And as it grows, so does our understanding of its potential to identify and cultivate customers. In 2009, established sites like FaceBook and Twitter will continue to grow. But there are also a couple of hidden gems that have the potential to be great traffic drivers and customer cultivation sites.

Though Ning was founded in 2004, it hasn’t received the publicity of its (often younger) peers. Ning powers the largest number of social networks on the internet. It is a highly customizable platform, which allows developers to add any number of social media tools to their site. And while it may not be practical for all small business owners to invest in the creation of a Ning site, it is a gold mine of connectivity. There are communities of creatives, moms, athletes, techies, spiritualists, authors, students, educators, parents…the list goes on and on.

And as each Ning community is created around a specialized area of interest, chances are great that there is a community that contains members of your target audience. By joining and becoming an active member of a niche site, you can cultivate customers in a highly selective way. In addition to blogging, members can join specialized groups, host events, offer specials, and build networks. The traffic that results from relationships on Ning sites is more likely to result in customer conversions, due to your ability to put your product or service directly in front of people who will value it.

Scribd is a social publishing site that was founded less than two years ago. Since that time, it has built a readership of more than 50 million people with 50,000 documents uploaded daily. Members upload any kind of written material from full novels to presentations. Its social networking components include specialized groups, discussion formats and networking. Readers can search and subscribe to various publications and publishers.

 The volume of traffic on this site make it almost irresistible for marketing purposes, combine that with the ease of uploading existing marketing materials and it is a no-brainer. Chances are great that you already have some of this information in place, so why not put it to use? Once you have uploaded standard materials, set a goal of offering original content on a regular basis. The critical component is that it must be useful or interesting to the members of the site. In so doing, you are contributing in a helpful way to the body of general knowledge, which makes you more than just a push marketer.

Explore existing publishing groups to determine if there is a logical fit for your business. Joining groups is a great way to build connections quickly, as is commenting on other publications and joining in on discussions. Build a network of connections on this site as you would on others.

Using Scribd and/or Ning in conjunction with standard sites like FaceBook and Twitter will give you an edge in cultivating new customers. Dependent upon your company’s needs, one might be a better choice than the other, but both are excellent places to market your products and services in the coming year.

Peoplemovers.com launch to build local communities

We’ve witnessed the explosive growth of social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Bebo. Why? So people can connect for social engagement and entertainment. The next evolution of this phenomenon is social networking with a purpose: Peoplemovers.com.

Peoplemovers.com is an online community that helps neighbors, businesses and charitable organizations connect to each other to build better communities offline and to give help and to get help, which is especially vital during these uncertain economic times.

Using Peoplemovers.com, businesses and organizations of all kinds, from schools to places of worship can easily mobilize their members to positively engage in their local communities… Read more

With the rapid growth of social networks, mobile phone giant Nokia is betting that mobile social networking could potentially be bigger than existing web-based social networking as the plan to ship hundreds of millions of mobile phones with Geolocation features in the next 24 months.

The world’s largest phone manufacturer sold nearly 440 million handsets in 2007, accounting for 40 percent of mobile phones sales worldwide and expects that number to grow in 2008 as the global market is set to grow by around 10 percent this year.

The firm plans to ship around 300 million GPS-equiped phones by 2010 according to Niklas Savander, Executive Vice President, Services and Software at Nokia World.

Should the firm sign the vast majority of the new mobile phone owners (and potentially open the scheme up to other mobile phone manufacturers), Nokia could be creating a social networking entity bigger than Myspace and Facebook combined. … Read more