SOCIAL MEDIA EXAMINER — Does your business have a Facebook page? Have you ever wondered what successful Facebook page owners are doing right? Well, look no further. This article examines 10 of the top Facebook pages from brands you’ll likely recognize. Regardless of the size of your business, you’ll discover great ideas that will help you take your Facebook experience to the next level. Each of these pages has incorporated unique features that have attracted hundreds of thousands (sometimes millions!) of fans and attracted the notice of major media publications. That’s a pretty big feat, considering there are thousands of new pages popping up on Facebook daily! There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Instead, check out what others are doing and tweak these strategies to make them your own!...

FORRESTER RESEARCH — A week ago, my friend Michael Rubin alerted me to a CNNMoney.com/Fortune article that rubbed him the wrong way. I and many others who cover social media had the same reaction to "Building your brand (and keeping your job)." Not only did the article seem unfair to Scott Monty, a marketing leader who has been widely recognized for the good work he’s done at Ford Motor Co., but the author focuses a great deal of criticism on the actions of employees whose social media activities ran afoul of their employers rather than considering how those employers might have benefited from a different approach and attitude. At the core of the article is an accurate and interesting conflict, which Jerry Wilson of Coca-Cola describes well...

MEDIAPOST — Coca-Cola is free. No, not in calories or caffeine, but the media that fans generate about the brand. Michael Donnelly, the Atlanta-based company's group director of worldwide interactive marketing, speaking at the ANA's Social Media conference in New York on Thursday, said fan-generated content and commentary costs nothing, and is a major benefit of using social media. The company, which fields 500 brands worldwide in some 206 countries, is putting a lot of attention on how to do that as efficiently as possible in its various markets...

E-CONSULTANCY.COM — Sponsorship is brilliant for many reasons; supporting a great cause or event, building awareness of your brand with a new audience and changing opinions of your brand through affiliation. When it comes to something as big as the World Cup, the link between sponsors and the main event can appear tenuous until you’re introduced to the "concept" behind the relationship through brand messaging. For example, Coca Cola’s desire for people to celebrate goals with a beverage or McDonald’s customers being compelled to avoid or discuss the games in its diners during the tournament. However, communicating these concepts is no longer a mere media-buying activity. International brands now have their social media channels to help them along the way...

VENTUREBEAT — Coca-Cola’s digital marketing chief said the company was seeing "phenomenal" results from its advertising campaign on Twitter. In a promising review of the microblogging network’s nascent advertising program, the drinks company said that its initial Promoted Tweet ad received 86 million impressions in its first 24 hours and drew an engagement rate of 6 percent, compared to the typical 0.02 percent clickthrough rate that mosts ads see...