The Coca-Cola Company, initially reluctant and slow to start in the social media game has pulled in huge numbers this year in terms of brand love and brand health. While they might not calculate out to exact dollars and cents, “social media marketing is where it’s at.”

“If people are interacting with our brand every day, that’s fabulous marketing,” said Carol Kruse, Coca-Cola’s vice president of global interactive marketing. “Word-of-mouth is one of the key drivers.” (more…)

German beer maker, Beck’s has been committed to producing one of the finest beers in the world since its creation in 1873. Its brand is a symbol of independent thinking and self expression, and it has refused to follow fads. Even today.

In March 2010, Beck’s will be launching a new packaging label on its bottles and cans globally. The new look has changed subtly over the years, demonstrating that it is a brand that remains true to the values it promotes.

To support the global launch Beck’s has introduced a viral video competition through the Poptent community to give fans a chance to promote their favourite beer in a hip and entertaining way. (more…)

The content monster is kind of like Cookie Monster in that he always wants more. However it isn’t so much the filling of content that keeps the writers spirit’s low - it’s the lack of comments.

As participants in the social space everyone’s aim is to encourage sharing and explore discussion. Think of the content as the hunger and the comments as the cookie. Whether you write something every day or every week or every hour - without the comments you just don’t get the same satisfaction. (more…)

Whether you are running a contest, an online audition or a community assignment, attracting UGC submissions can be a challenge. Here are some tips that you can apply to your campaign to draw more content from your website visitors. (more…)

WebMediaBrands Inc. launched a new e-commerce enabled website called StockLogos yesterday which allows global graphic designers to sell user-generated content (UGC) logos to companies looking for creative, high-quality and affordable logos for download.

The company, whose brands include mediabistro.com and BrandsoftheWorld.com is a leading blog network which provides content, education, jobs and events for business, media, and creative professionals and is headquartered in New York, New York. (more…)

LEGO is embracing the power of social media to allow users to share their vision for new products and toys online. It has launched its new LEGO Click community, a collaborative environment for inventors, artists and creative enthusiasts to share their ideas for LEGO.

The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 and is now a modern, global enterprise and the world’s fifth-largest manufacturer of toys.

The new LEGO Click community will interact closely with Facebook and Twitter, taking some of the posted content that is marked with the #legoclick hashtag and displaying it on the community website. Users will have the opportunity to offer feedback or submit ideas using those links. (more…)

ubroadcast, inc. will be introducing more genre and content specific sites in 2010. The company will power some of these new sites with its audio and video platform while also developing new ideas and technology to build on in the future. (more…)

The financial district and its consumers have long been fans of personalized cheques and credit cards, which is why Discover Card, one of the world’s most recognized brands in U.S. financial services is hosting a user-generated content (UGC) design contest is looking for its next student card in the Graffiti Discover Contest. (more…)

With the influx of social media and user-generated content (UGC), crisis communications have changed. Typical crisis management sees a lot of people discussing, debating and complaining about your brand. More people are now taking to the Internet and sometimes posting content that is factually inaccurate, based on a bad experience or written out of panic.

There are no set list of rules or guidelines to follow about how to use social media in a crisis situation, however here are my top five measures to take in order to avoid the worst. (more…)

A set of guidelines, funded by UNESCO and commissioned by the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association (CBA) have recently been published on how broadcasters around the world can encourage better quality user-generated content (UGC) and improve media and information literacy.

The basis of the report is to provide guidance on how to encourage a greater diversity of material from a wider range of voices. Content that can not only fill the commercial needs of broadcasters, however the viewing needs of the public audience as well. (more…)