EXPERIENCE: THE BLOG — In the Forrester report, Tapping The Entire Online Peer Influence Pyramid, we introduced the Mass Influencer, a category of online influencer comprised of people who create most of the peer impressions about about brands in social channels. Although just 16 percent of the online population, Mass Influencers create 80 percent of all peer impressions about products and services. Engaging Mass Influencers is tough -- getting a sufficient number of bloggers or Twitterers to mention your new product or participate in your promotion is challenge enough -- but keeping them engaged is tougher...

ZDNET — Allstate is only one of a growing number of Fortune 500 companies that is digging deep into social media help improve brand awareness and create more mutually beneficial relationships with customers. The company began developing its social media program two years ago during the upswing of industry buzz, and has since developed a strong community and social networking presence. I did a very quick Q&A with Ben Foster, senior strategy and content manager for social networking at Allstate, about the company’s vision and execution of community for both consumers and its agents...

THE SOCIAL TIMES — Recently, we noticed that RockYou had been promoting it’s ZooWorld application by using graphic ads on the Meebo chat service. This is certainly another sign of the growth of Facebook games, not only in reach, but in value to advertisers, as they pay to make placements on disparate networks or in this case, chat aggregators. We investigate how other game companies are attracting users to their Facebook games from outside of Facebook...

VENTUREBEAT — Crowdstar came out of nowhere last fall to become one of the biggest game publishers on Facebook. Now it plans on holding onto that position with a rapid expansion. Jeff Tseng, co-founder of the Burlingame, Calif.-based startup, said in an interview at the company’s cramped offices that it will likely expand from 40 employees now to more than 100 by the end of the year. We’re taking notice because everyone is watching Crowdstar now...