Everyone wants to be the next Foursquare, however it’s soft drink giant Pepsi that is actually getting in on the ground floor and leveraging its commitment to social media and crowd sourcing through a new program that will see some of the best and brightest ideas brought out of their incubation period.

Pepsi has partnered with Highland Capital Partners and Mashable to search out new ideas in social media in a project called the Innovative Incubator Program, PepsiCo10, as a part of the Pepsi Refresh Project. (more…)

Mashable, the social media news blog covering cool new websites and social networks has launched its 3rd annual Open Web Awards: Social Media Edition where some of the most followed, famous or entertaining leaders and companies in the social media space can get recognized for their hard work and innovative thinking. (more…)

An integral part of any social media campaign, that perhaps gets overlooked more often than not is the writing. While many people may assume that print material can easily translate onto the Web, they would be wrong. Web writing is an entirely different medium with a completely different set of rules.

Yesterday Mashable published a list of five rules for better writing online. The list covers a range of topics that deserve consideration by any marketer before moving their campaigns online. Noting that writing is an important part of the user experience, Snoo.ws has come up with its own (shorter) list, to ensure that your online writing is just as usable as the rest of your campaign material. (more…)

Last week Mashable reported a tweet from ESPN’s NBA analyst Ric Bucher, that stated the sports network would be “prohibiting tweeting info unless it serves ESPN.” Although the decision was almost immediately commented on by an ESPN publicist, it brings up the question of how much control employers can and should put on their employee’s presence online. (more…)

In April of this year Pizza Hut announced that they would be hiring a Twintern, a college student to act as the social media journalist for the company. This week, Alexa Robinson officially started in that position and her first task was to offer up a free food promotion.

Pizza Hut, owned by Yum! Brands, will be offering a similar style coupon marketing promotion to the one that KFC offered only last month that resulted in a viral apology campaign. (more…)

The website Mashable is using a predictable strategy to give people the opportunity to win passes to the user-generated content conference and expo (UGCX).  Mashable is asking people to visit its website and finish the sentence “I’d like to go to UGCX for free because…”

The UGCX is a two-day event held in San Jose, California, on February 9 and 10. UGCX is produced by mediabistro.com, a website that is designed to help media professionals network and provide them news and information related to the media industry. The event is the first of its kind; the first expo that’s sole purpose is to discus and educate on the rapidly growing world of UGC. (more…)