Social Media Marketing

Heinz is eyeing potential e-commerce campaigns for future tomato ketchup products following the success of its first Facebook shop. The company became the first fast-moving consumer goods brand to sell a product via the social network earlier this year when it made a limited-edition flavor of tomato ketchup available exclusively through Facebook.

After shutting down the Google+ invitation process late last week because of "insane demand" from people eager to try out its new social network, Google once again began to allow new members.

British apparel and accessories designer Burberry is tapping YouTube to uniquely display the features of its new Brights eyewear collection. Burberry displayed a video on its branded video channel that shows how the glasses fold into itself. The brand promoted the glasses and the video via Facebook and Twitter.

Someone — unbeknownst to the Ralph Laurn camp — had claimed the Twitter handle @RalphLaurenUSA and started to tweet on behalf of the brand. The feed mostly has retweets and replies thanking followers for their support. One post even talks about Ralph Lauren's partnership with Wimbledon. The big question we have is why?

Google stopped inviting users to join its new social network less than 48 hours after beginning a limited release of the service. Google Senior Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra said the company had shut down the invite mechanism for the Google+ service for the night, in a note he posted on Google+.

Grammy-winning singer Justin Timberlake holds a stake in Specific Media, which just shelled out $35 million to acquire MySpace, a site for which Timberlake will provide strategic direction.

At the ripe old age of seven, could Facebook be overtaken by a new competitor? Google has unleashed its own social platform, Google+. A spokeswoman said the company began the project "to see what a Google approach to sharing would look like, and to see if we could come up with a better way of connecting with the different people in our lives."

Fashion editors and department store buyers have long had the biggest say in what parts of designer collections make it to market. This pattern is changing, however, thanks to a more social web culture and better tools to facilitate online voting, purchasing and even customization.

Foursquare has surpassed the 10-million user mark, and the check-in site collected a number of facts about itself to complement the announcement. Target, Wal-Mart and Macy's have been noted as the most popular retail chains on the site.

American Express and Foursquare announced the national rollout of their partnership, which enables American Express card members who link their Foursquare profiles to their cards to "load" and seamlessly redeem merchant specials without the need for coupons, special codes or showing their mobile device to cashiers. This is the first time this technology has been used to allow card members nationwide to take advantage of merchant specials offered through Foursquare. The national launch kicks off with specials from H&M, Sports Authority and Union Square Hospitality Group, and is expected to expand rapidly in the coming weeks and months.