Keeping up with the latest news from the content marketing universe is an exhausting endeavor and could almost become a full-time job. But since you already have a job, our Five Things You Might Have Missed List is a quick and easy way to get all your headlines while staying gainfully employed!

1.) Blackout Tweets: Talk about the ultimate in turning lemons into lemonade. Social media savvy marketers for Oreo, Audi, Tide and VW took to Twitter during the Super Bowl blackout last Sunday. These fast-on-their-feet brands showed that Twitter is the ultimate platform for impromptu marketing. Tweets like “Power out? No problem. You can still dunk in the dark” from Oreo creatively rolled with the punches and got retweeted thousands of times as a result.

2.) Home Sweet Homepage: Looking to give your blog a facelift? Read Hubspot’s 12 Inspiring Examples of Beautiful Blog Homepage Designs first! This post that you might have missed profiles the best blog homepages in the business and how you can infuse some their style into your own work.

3.) Ain’t it Grand: In recent months, Google has really taken to imaginative online video creation and has come up with some truly cool campaigns. The latest, which shows how Google Maps went off-road to create stunning panoramic shots of the Grand Canyon, is another example of how Google is mastering video to reach even more customers.

4.) Supply and Demanding: A new study from About.com and Latitude proves what marketers have suspected for years: Consumers demand more engagement from brands. Seventy-nine percent of consumers polled agreed with the statement: “My relationship with brands is much more personal than ever before,” while 68 percent of consumers concur with the assertion that “Shopping today is less about the brands/products themselves and more about me — what I’m feeling or needing.” In other words, not only is the customer always right, but they also want you to post that on their Facebook wall.

5.) Locked and Loaded: Finally, to see examples of Twitter tantrums to avoid, look no further than the current bickering back and forth between celebrities who are pro-gun control and those against it. This kind of social media preaching, regardless of what side you’re on, makes one miss the good old days when celebrities spoke only through their publicists.

Blog marketing basics, divine live-tweeting and some heartfelt online video creation are just of a taste of what you’ll find in this week’s Five Thing You Might Have Missed. But don’t take our word for it. Dig in and find out for yourself!

1.) Popularity Mechanics: Why don’t people read your blog? What should you be blogging about? Where do you begin with blog marketing? And how do you get more folks to like what you blog about? The secrets to a popular blog are spilled in this must-read post from Inc. Aaron Arders demystifies blogging for business and does so with humor and insight.

2.) Pawnee Pinterest: The marketing folks over at the sitcom Parks and Recreation deserve a round of applause for taking a subplot involving fictional clothing store Rent-a-Swag and turning into a Pinterest phenomenon. The show has been rocking comedic Pinterest boards for a little over a year, and this latest triumph proves that pinning can be effective and hilarious.

3.) Facebook Calling: Finally: a Facebook petition we can get behind! A plaza in the Spanish city of Granada will be renamed after legendary Clash frontman Joe Strummer after 2,000 signatures collected on Facebook swayed city officials. Strummer had a long history with Granada and he even mentioned it in the iconic song “Spanish Bombs.” Spain — and even Facebook — just got a little bit cooler.

4.) Heart to Heart: Whether you love or hate that smart-talking heart-shaped puppet on the Zoosk commercial, there’s no denying that the little guy, along with his friend Liz, are a viral sensation. With over 14 million views on YouTube and slew of parodies, this is one puppet that, in one commercial, put a dating website nobody ever heard of on the branding map.

5.) Live Tweeting, Diva Style: And lastly, we’ve been snickering at the no-holds-barred tweets from icon Bette Midler for months, but the star really showed her Twitter gravitas on Monday when she live-tweeted the inauguration. Midler tweeted about being hungover, the tackiness of gum chewing and even zinged Paul Ryan. For a star like Midler, who is returning to films and Broadway, Twitter is a good way to re-introduce themselves to audiences. Yet Midler’s blunt and hilarious tweets make Twitter marketing simply divine.

Skillful social media management sometimes comes down to just being a nice guy. Brands that rely on channels like Twitter and Facebook to reward customers, fix consumer issues and get feedback let followers know that there’s a real person behind those status updates. Fast-food chain Taco Bell is one company that seems to really thrive from brand engagement. Over the last few years, the company has reached out to its fans on Facebook and Twitter with all kinds of personalized communication. Now one teenage swimmer and regular customer’s quirky request has proven that even big brands like Taco Bell actually read the posts on their Facebook pages.

“Where do I go after a long day’s workout? Taco Bell, of course. I eat at Taco Bell at least 5-7 times a week,” 16-year-old Ryan Klarner of Palantine, Ill., posted on Taco Bell’s Facebook Page. “So, what I am asking is this: Is there any way you guys could make me a customized Speedo that says ‘think outside the buns’ on the back of it?”

Just two weeks later, Taco Bell responded to Klarner’s request.

“What size do you wear? And what is your address?” the company posted.

This little interaction between fan and brand caught the eye of big blogs like Mashable and Huffington Post. HuffPo reached out to Taco Bell to see if its offer was legit.

“This Facebook fan caught our attention because of his passion for the brand and the way he Lives Mas with Taco Bell,” Tressie Lieberman, Taco Bell’s director of digital and social engagement, said via e-mail to HuffPo. “We are going to deliver on the fan’s original request, and also send him a Speedo that represents our new branding, Live Mas.”

Several Facebook posts, two Speedos and hundreds of tacos later, Klarner got his wish — and Taco Bell made headlines.

Talk about delicious digital engagement! But now it’s your turn, readers: Share with us great tales of interaction with brands using social media in the comments section below.

Welcome to Brandsplat’s Five Things You Might Have Missed, where we dabble in online curation by calling out the week’s most fetching and far-fetched moments that just might have slipped right past you. Wouldn’t want that, right? Sit right down and you’ll hear a tale…

1.) A Simple Demand: Branded online video creation need not always be packed with special effects, catchy tunes or adorable animation in order to be memorable. Sometimes a powerful and timely message is enough. Demand a Plan to End Gun Violence, despite being packed with Hollywood A-listers like Conan O’Brien, Jamie Fox and Jennifer Aniston, is a simple PSA which demonstrates this point beautifully. A non-profit formed in response to the recent rash of deadly shootings in the United States, Demand a Plan created a video which does what any great campaign should do: speaks directly and honestly about something on the collective conscience.

2.) Kobe, Brief: “The antisocial has become social” and so began the newly-anointed Twitter career of Laker Kobe Bryant. Bryant has long been a holdout on the social network and his appearance is list-worthy indeed. Not because he’s another athlete joining Twitter, an occurrence that happens every 5 minutes, but because the hundreds of thousands that followed him during his first several hours on the site. Twitter marketing, especially for individual brands like Bryant, has never been bigger or more powerful.

3.) NMXcellence: Blogging conferences are a dime a dozen, but NMX, which happen this past week in Las Vegas, is noteworthy for the massive attendance and the serious coverage it received. Having nerd icons like Chris Hardwicke as keynote speakers certainly created a stir. But giving blogging, including blogging for business, center stage is what landed this function on our radar.

4.) Let the Poking Begin: After a few weeks of speculation, few would have predicted that Delta Lingerie would be the first brand to use Facebook Poke, the new mobile app which pushes out one-time only self-destructing branded messages. Delta used the spot to distribute a discount as well as a sexy but not too sexy video of a model getting dressed. Poke might finally just be the thing Facebook’s been searching for to bridge the gap between social and mobile.

5.) Cookie, Meet Rocky: Rounding out our list this week is a clever spot for Google Play that mixes things we love (Cookie Monster! The Rocky Theme!) with things we don’t love (exercise! New Year’s Resolutions!). The result is another charming Google ad that makes actually want to finally try Play. Mission accomplished, Cookie Monster!

Happy almost New Year, Brandsplatters! Instead of our weekly Five Things You Might Have Missed, we’re celebrating the end of the year with our top five branding fails of 2012. Maybe they fell victim to Twitter marketing travesties or botched blog creation. Perhaps it was soggy digital engagement and horrible online PR that brought them down. But whatever it was these five brands provide excellent examples of what not to do in 2013!

1.) Chick-fil-A: Without a doubt, Chick-fil-A wins biggest branding disaster of 2012. Beyond the company’s blatant opposition to gay marriage, Chick-fil-A simply tanks at online marketing and is even worse at digital PR. The company could have used Twitter and Facebook to have an honest conversation with angry consumers but instead the company tried to sweep the entire mess under the rug and kept on posting images of it’s tragically unfunny cows as if nothing had ever happened.

2.) JC Penney: The valuable lesson that companies of every kind can learn from JC Penney is this — if you’re going to rebrand yourself as hip, than you better actually be hip. From Ellen DeGeneres to Target-like advertisements, Penney’s (as our mom called it) was trying to be cool. The only problem? They were still Penney’s. With H&M, IKEA and the aforementioned Target being actually cool and more affordable, the chain seemed irrelevant. Plus limp online videos and social media campaigns didn’t seem to help the company’s cause either.

3.) Facebook: While the company had a lot to cheer about this year (The IPO! A billion users!), the company had just as many problems — getting dumped by GM and Ford, losing younger audiences to Twitter and Tumblr and that IPO. Mainly, the brand slipped from the cutting edge by getting colder and less original with the brand messaging. Let’s hope the next year brings back the Facebook which innovates instead of imitates.

4.) McDonald’s: Oh boy. If you are considering Twitter marketing in the next year, do yourself a favor and look at McDonald’s year in Twitter and then do the exact opposite. #McDStories was the fast-food empire’s bid back in January to get Twitter users to talk about McDonald’s memories. Instead Tweeters used it to bash the brand. Other Twitter campaigns never took off and McDonald’s wound up looking like a big social media joke. Mickey D’s was also under fire over the summer for some questionable blogger bribes during the Olympics.

5.) American Apparel: Speaking of Twitter, American Apparel got spanked on Twitter like a naughty baby after offering a “bored during the storm” discount during Hurricane Sandy. Consumers were less than happy and used social media to tell American Apparel to “shut the hell up” among other things. Granted the company has never really been known for its sensitivity and smarts, but this was low even for American Apparel.

Once upon a time (actually, three years ago) we here at Brandsplat thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we gathered up a weekly sampling of five of the ‘net’s best online video creation, social media marketing news and digital engagement headlines and put them in one easy-to-read column?” And thus the Five Things You Might Have Missed was born! So stay a while and enjoy this week’s offerings, why don’t you?

1.) Fun Ways to Market: Topping our list this week is the viral smash hit ‘Dumb Ways to Die.’ Created for Melbourne’s Metro transportation board to warn riders of train safety, the video checks all of the boxes. Catchy song? Check! Cute animation? Check! Kind of gory and macabre? Check! The video, since its release at the beginning of the month, has become a global sensation, with more than 32 million views on YouTube. The cute jellybean creatures who die in the most ridiculous ways are proof that awesome public service announcements can aspire to go viral.

2.) Human Pinterest: For inspiring ways to use Pinterest, this article from GOOD is a must-read. The piece outlines how Sony’s “Love to Give” campaign is using everybody’s favorite wedding tablescape and deep-fried cupcake website Pinterest to make a difference. “Pin it to Give it” asked Pinterest users to re-pin posts from Sony’s special board. For each re-pin, Sony gave a dollar to charitable organizations. GOOD also includes some genius fundraising ideas using Pinterest marketing.

3.) Turning Junk Into Genius: Talk about recycling. In case you missed it last week, David Meerman Scott hunted down the perfect example of brilliant blog marketing when he profiled the online marketing efforts of 1-800-Got-Junk. Not Another Junky Blog is a hilarious, smartly-written and informative blog about, well, junk. Incorporating the day’s headlines with organization ideas and the company’s services, Not Another Junky Blog elevates its topic and even makes it fun to read about.

4.) Manage the Manager: From the #ImGladI’mNotThatDude files, we humbly present ‘How Not to Tweet’ courtesy of Justin Bieber’s manager, Scooter Braun. Braun made headlines for all of the wrong reasons last week when he had a meltdown on Twitter. Braun was far from happy that his client Bieber came up empty handed in the Grammy nomination department. Rambling about how “the kid deserved it” and “Grammy board u blew it on this one,” Braun proved two things we already knew: a.) Don’t hire a manager named Scooter, and b.) For the love of all that is holy, keep them off of Twitter!

5.) Bye George: George Takei, as we all know, can pretty much do no wrong when it comes to social media. He’s loved by millions on Twitter and followed by millions more on Facebook and has used social media to turn himself into a bigger icon than he already was. Yet not everybody loved his “Cheermageddon” commercial for Old Navy. The spot features Takei warbling “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Deal,” a parody of Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Wanna Miss a Thing.” Old Navy employees populated the video’s comments section calling it “torture” and saying about hearing the song in the workplace, “When you work at Old Navy, you want to hang yourself.” Old Navy workers were saved as the ad was pulled at the beginning of December. But don’t cry for George just yet. Despite the creaky vocals and cheesy lyrics, nearly 4 million folks have watched it on YouTube.

Go inside a blip that caused mega nightmares for blog marketing specialists! See how one brand is trying to make scrapbooking cool again! And oh-so-much more in this week’s Five Things You Might Have Missed.

1.) 20 Years of Texting: This week SMS celebrated two decades of “OMG” and “K”. The first SMS (short message service) or text was sent in 1992 and it read simply, “Merry Christmas.” Since then, text messaging has exploded and opened the doors for mobile marketing. While some wonder if the SMS days are numbered, the anniversary tops our list for creating a platform that has truly changed the way we communicate and market.

2.) Tumblr Typhoon: If you conduct your company’s blog writing and blog creation primarily on Tumblr, then Monday was probably not your favorite day. In case you missed it (and be thankful if you did), a major worm knocked Tumblr out, causing the popular blogging platform to disable posting. Tumblr urged users to reset passwords while it got things ironed out. The culprit for this blogtastrophe? Tumblr’s re-blogging feature. The worm spread from post to post each time Tumblr users innocently re-blogged posts.

3.) The Scrapbook Comes Back: Leave it to the digital engagement masterminds at IKEA to make the scrapbook cool again. KLIPPBOK (which actually means scrapbook in Swedish) is an inventive iPad app which lets users clip things they like from IKEA (furniture, paint swatches, meatballs, etc.) and create endless decorating combinations. It’s a little bit Pinterest, a little bit old school and a lot of amazing. We’re thrilled to see companies like IKEA take tablet marketing and apps to a more imaginative level.

4.) For the birds: “What would happen if real birds used Twitter?” you ask. The creative folks at Voldemars Dudums advertising created this fun, time-killing video to find out. You’re welcome!

5.) Jason____: And finally, if you thought the guy who wrangled brands to pay him to wear their t-shirts couldn’t come up with a crazier marketing idea, you thought wrong. Jason Sadler announced last week that he was auctioning off his last name. For an entire year, Sadler will now change his last name to the highest bidding brand name. The winner? At $34,500, JLabAudio is the winning new last name… but Jason and his company, IWearYourShirt.com, score millions of dollars in free press coverage.

What do Honey Boo Boo, a Facebook marketing faux pas and some really dumb toys have in common? They’re all part of this week’s five things you might have missed list, silly! Sit back and get ready to be edumacated on new and notorious stories from the online marketing universe that may have passed you by.

1.) The Year in Bing: ‘Tis the season for the onslaught of year-end lists, and it’s actually impossible to read them all. But if you missed it, we highly recommend glancing at the top searches for 2012. Search engine marketers love this sort of thing — it help predict trends — but the list itself is predictable. Honey Boo Boo, the election, the 2012 Olympics and Kim Kardashian all topped the list. Still, it’s worth a gander for the most searched social networks. Facebook topped the list, with retro-surprise MySpace holding at No. 3. 2012′s social media darling Pinterest didn’t even crack the top five.

2.) Twitter Tangle: Absolutely no one missed the hilarious copyright infringement hoax on Facebook but you might have missed the very real proprietary battle brewing over at Twitter. A courtroom tussle between Twitter and PeopleBrowser could very well define who actually owns your tweets… do you or does Twitter? We’re sure to find out more; the case heads to court this winter.

3.) Scary or Snoozy: Here in the U.S., zombies are so 2011. Even most advertisers have moved on. But in Norway, the undead can still scare up major headlines. In fact, a recent viral ad had parents organizations screaming for a boycott. But you tell us, you marketing geniuses, is this spot scary or a little sleepy? Discuss!

4.) Speaking of Boycotts: By now, we know that when it comes to Facebook, Australia does not mess around. The country does not put up with branded post that are offensive, sexist or spammy. So it’s not shocking to learn that this sophomoric photo from men’s magazine ZOO weekly got banned. While the photo is forgettable, the controversy around it brings to the surface enough interesting social media marketing conundrums like censorship and misogyny to make marketers anywhere in the world think.

5.) Trashy Toys: For some major branding fails, look no further than the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood’s list of nominees for Toys Oppressive and Destructive to Young Children Award. Pastel-colored Legos that set women back about 50 years, a shamelessly sugary Slurpee machine and scary stuffed monkey with an iPad on its stomach are among this year’s nominees. We’d prefer coal.

For image-rich blog marketing that reaches a younger demographic, it’s hard to beat Tumblr. Terrific to look at, easy to set up and filled with users in the magic 18-24 demographic, Tumblr is a blog content management for the meme generation. Making it even more attractive is that it’s free to use and not filled with advertising.

Or is it? Tumblr’s consultant on marketing and revenue Rick Webb raised more than a few eyebrows yesterday when he claimed that Tumblr is rolling in advertiser dollars. We just haven’t noticed — and that’s totally the point.

Unlike traditionally-monetized social media accounts like those found on Twitter and Facebook, Tumblr, according to Webb, is doing it all on the down-low. Massive brands like Coke and Nike are using Tumblr to pimp products, but not in the flashing “click this ad” type of way. Webb claims that Tumblr began selling ads this spring.

“We have people say ‘don’t ever advertise,’” Webb said at the Business Insider’s IGNITION conference, adding “(but) we already are.”

He notes that ads on Tumblr are done in creative and engaging ways which speak the language of Tumblr so much so that they appear to be free posts.

“It’s not in your stream, not in display ads,” he says.

From what it sounds like, Tumblr is aiming to help brands create photo sharing blogs that sell products without beating users over the head.

“I think a lot of photo sharing sites never tried to monetize through advertising. I don’t think it will be impossible for us,” he said.

Tumblr’s new social media advertising model is one that could turn the platform on its head, if it’s successful. Marrying photo sharing, blog marketing and social media marketing with more dynamic and less spammy posts is brilliant. This shift is social media advertising could force marketers to up the creativity… and that’s something we’d love to see.

While researching a piece on online marketing, I stumbled across the Overly Attached Computer. This viral phenomenon is a Samsung ad that has been spun off from the ridiculously popular Overly Attached Girlfriend videos which racked up millions of views earlier this fall. At a mere two weeks old, Overly Attached Computer is already hovering in the 5 million views neighborhood. Why? The concept — a stalkerish computer played by new comedy star Laina who warns her owner to pay attention to her or else — is certainly ridiculous and not exactly sophisticated. But when it comes to digital engagement that really resonates, a new study says ridiculous is exactly what followers want.

A recent report put out by Forbes Insights and Turn called “The New Rules of Engagement: Measuring the Power of Social Currency” finds that funny might just equal money. When asked what makes them stop and notice an advertisement, 67 percent said simply “It’s funny.” Even 14 percent of marketing professionals (who should be above a cheap laugh) confessed that funny wins when it comes to ads they remember. Well-designed or eye-catching was No. 2 (50 percent) with consumers and No. 1 (49 percent) with ad execs. Thought-provoking ads (33 percent), emotionally-charged campaigns (19 percent) and ads forwarded by friends or family (19 percent) rounded out the list for consumers.

These results are interesting, even if they hold few surprises. Turns out our tastes haven’t evolved that much even if online marketing seems to change daily. Whether it’s websites, custom content, social media marketing campaigns or viral videos, we the people will remember it if it’s easy on the eyes and makes us laugh.

So, dear readers, I ask you: What’s the funniest online campaign you can remember from 2012? While we’re at it, tell us about a great-looking website or social media campaign, too. Educate us in the comments section below!