In social media marketing, we live by the legend that everybody gets all of their information from Facebook and Twitter. After all, we see big news stories spread like wildfire on social media every week, if not daily. From celebrity scandals and branding snafus to sports scores and natural disasters, the common belief is that social media isn’t just talking about the top stories of the day, but actually breaking news stories, too. Yet a new study is out to burst that bubble by claiming only 9 percent of Americans turn to Facebook and Twitter to get their news.

Shockingly, The State of the News Media 2012, a report from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism, finds that Americans are decidedly old school when it comes to getting their news. More than a third claim they still hear the headlines from news organizations like CNN, MSNBC and local radio/TV news outlets. Tech sources for news weren’t totally out of the picture, however; 32 percent say they rely on search engines and 29 percent use news aggregation sites and apps like Flipboard, according to Pew.

The numbers in the survey shift dramatically, however, when the study focuses on subjects who rely on digital for their only news resource. A full 52 percent of digital news consumers admit to getting at least some of their daily news from Facebook and Twitter. Pew subjects were also very opinionated about which they liked better for news — Facebook or Twitter. Seven percent of digital news consumers say they get news from Facebook very often while only 3 percent said the same for Twitter. But Twitter dominated in being first for original stories; 39 percent said they read stories on Twitter they wouldn’t have found elsewhere.

But does the dip in social media news mean anything to marketers? You tell us, readers! Has the social media news era already ended, taking our interest in engaging with brands on Facebook and Twitter with it? Sound off below!

In online marketing, there are some brand names you hear time and time again: Innovators who can simultaneously rock social media marketing, traditional advertising and digital engagement. Over the last two years, Dunkin Donuts has truly emerged as one of those names, and this spring the company launched two newsworthy social media campaigns.

2012 saw a ton of brands get in on last week’s Saint Patrick’s Day action with all sorts of Twitter- and Facebook-based campaigns. Fast food chains in particular were quick to push their green-colored products in hopes that the luck of the Irish would translate to a bump in seasonal sales. Dunkin Donuts launched the hashtag #GooDDLuck to promote its GooDD Luck Twitter Sweepstakes. The clever contest called upon DD’s 134,000+ Twitter followers to tweet what items or rituals bring them good luck (followed by the #GoDDLuck hashtag). Dunkin social media wizards then picked 7 lucky winners to get $50 gift cards. That’s a lot of green donuts! The campaign boasted a lot of responses and even picked up some headlines along the way.

On the Facebook front, DD is one of the many companies capitalizing on March Madness. The Dunk Zone is Dunkin’s Facebook hub for all things basketball. As one of the lead sponsors of NCAA Basketball, Dunkin has partnered with CBS to offer Facebook fans inside info on all the latest games, scores and stories coming from March Madness. While basketball and the company’s new Angus Steak & Egg Sandwich might seem like a brand disconnect, DD has a long history with the sport — even recently calling upon superstar LeBron James to promote the company in Asia. Dunkin has all kinds of other action happening on its Facebook page, as well, and clearly people are responding. As of this writing, Dunkin Donuts has 6 million-plus Facebook Likes.

So what can indie companies learn from a donut digital dominator like Dunkin? First off, seasonal social media campaigns like Dunkin’s are the kind of things anybody can do and are a great internal motivator to plan ahead. Also, Dunkin excels at coming up with interactive conversational campaigns on Twitter and Facebook. Again, all of us could and should do that. Lastly, Dunkin Donuts is a great example of a brand that’s simply well-liked. Donuts are not supposed to be serious or make people think, so Dunkin appropriately speaks the language their customers want to hear.

On these pages, we love to chat about how big brands handle social media marketing meltdowns and snafus. Multi-billion-dollar corporations, it seems, have the same problems on Facebook that the rest of us do: crazy messages left on our walls, accidental fights breaking out over innocent topics and general misunderstandings blown way out of proportion — all in a way that can only happen on Facebook. So we were interested to see how mega-insurance powerhouse Allstate tried to put out a Facebook fire ignited by Women’s History Month and Rush Limbaugh.

A couple days back, Allstate harmlessly posted the question: “It’s Women’s History Month. What woman inspires you?” Undoubtedly, Allstate was looking for answers like “my mother” or “Golda Meir” but what it got instead was a firestorm of angry responses from women who were upset that the company advertises on Rush Limbaugh’s radio program. Limbaugh, in case you’ve been visiting your vacation condo under a rock, took some major heat last week for calling a Georgetown University student a “slut” because she supported health insurance coverage for contraception. ToppleBush.com published a list of advertisers who support Limbaugh’s program and Allstate was one of the heavy hitters.

But Allstate says they’ve never advertised on Limbaugh’s show and the ads that have aired have been a mistake. (Sears has similarly been charged with advertising on Limbaugh and also claims whatever spots have aired have been accidental.)

“We contacted the vendor that arranges for our advertising placements and discovered that an error had been made and advertising time had been mistakenly purchased for the show,” Allstate said in a press release. The insurance giant took further action to ensure its posts would not appear on Limbaugh’s show, as did other brands including like AOL, which pulled its advertising completely.

Meanwhile, the brand took to Facebook to clear up the Limbaugh mess directly. In a series of posts that interacted with Facebook users, Allstate discussed the programming mistake and its stance on Limbaugh. Of course, Facebookers will be Facebookers, and the fight over Limbaugh continued in the comments section of several posts.

In the end, Allstate faced the allegations head on and bravely hopped in the shark-infested Facebook waters. Do we buy the “Oops! We didn’t mean to advertise on Limbaugh’s show” excuse? Meh. It’s most likely a face-saving move… but when played using shrewd Facebook management, it’s a wise one, too.

We’ve talked about how Facebook can help your blog marketing a lot on these pages lately. It seems like weekly there are new ideas and innovations to get the world’s most popular social network to work for your blog. But Google+, with its 25 million (and growing) users, is an untapped goldmine for driving people to your company blog.

One of the biggest benefits of Google+ is how users can set up different “circles” or audiences. Instead of wrestling with two Facebook accounts, one business and one personal, Google+ gives you the option of having two circles that keep your social and professional lives separate without more account setup hassles. Once your circles are set, linking and distributing your blogs to your followers is super-easy. Using Google+ Sparks, the topics you blog about are easier for interested readers to find. Sparks are categories and keywords picked by you and tagged to your posts. This handy tool makes not only reading the content you want to read on Goggle+ incredibly easy but it also makes your own content easier to find.

Yet the most appealing reason to put your blog on Google+ is the Google factor itself. Every company blog writing expert is going to want to take a few minutes to check the little box on Google+ that reads “Help others find my profile in search results.” This tiny preference change can take your blog and profile from obscurity to high ranking. Google+ has the benefit of being the byproduct of the most powerful search engine on the planet… so why not utilize that?

Google+ certainly has the power to drive audiences and consumers to your blog and brand, but the question remains: Do you have time for another social media marketing endeavor? And with that, we’ll turn it over to you, lovely readers. Is Google+ worth the time and effort? Which brands do you follow on Google+? Let us know in the comments section!

With Tiger on the outs and Tebow too polarizing, the world of sports has been in desperate need of a hero who could potentially become a branding superstar, a headline-maker and an international sensation. No current figure from professional sports fits that bill better than Jeremy Lin. Thanks to a jaw-dropping winning streak earlier this month, Lin is suddenly an unlikely superstar — and an illustration in what’s right and what’s wrong with Facebook marketing and online brand management.

The 6-foot 3-inch tall Christian Asian-American Lin reluctantly joined Facebook; within days, his followers were in the hundreds of thousands. As a brand and personality, Lin is intriguing, different and enigmatic. On Facebook these are great traits to have but being an individual also opens the doors for a world of ridiculous and ignorant comments. ESPN has already canned one employee who spewed racist nonsense on Facebook, and hundreds of other anti-Asian comments have flooded his page from so-called fans.

Sigh. Lin’s presence and celebrity should be celebrated and as a global brand he should be one we are ready to embrace. Facebook in the same right should be the place where that can happen. But as it’s been noted by smarter folks than us, what’s wrong on Facebook is sometimes a mirror of what’s wrong with the world at large. But it’s not just on Facebook where Lin is misunderstood. Ben and Jerry’s attempted to pay tribute to Lin with an ice cream flavor entitled “Taste the Lin-Sanity.” Featuring lychee fruit and fortune cookies, all that was missing from this stereotype-fest was a miniature gong and dragon on the label. Yeesh. Lin was born in Los Angeles and grew up in the U.S., so this type of “ancient Chinese secret” packaging seriously missed the mark. Thankfully, the folks at Ben & Jerry’s realized it, too, and replaced the fortune cookie pieces with waffles.

While Lin is exciting to watching on the court, we as marketers and consumers are learning a thing or two about cultural sensitivity. Looks like we still have a long way to go.

The Pope dabbles in Twitter marketing, a birthday boy melts Red Lobster’s butter and much, much more in this white-hot edition of the Five Things You Might Have Missed!

1.) Flashmobs, now less dorky: We happily laid branded flashmobs to rest. Honestly, we were thrilled to see them fade into the Internet mist. But Intel’s latest spin on flashmobs might have changed our minds. Armed with Intel Ultrabooks, mobsters popped up in locales all over Los Angeles to make fireworks, perform live music and create live digital art, all by using a laptop.

2) #IGaveTweetingUpForLent: It was bound to happen sooner or later — the Pope has gone cuckoo for Twitter marketing. His newest campaign? Tweeting during Lent to educate followers the on the reason for the season. The Pope started tweeting on Ash Wednesday and will continue until Easter morning. Pope Benedict sums up the brilliance and effectiveness of Twitter by saying, “In concise phrases, often no longer than a verse from the Bible, profound thoughts can be communicated, as long as those taking part in the conversation do not neglect to cultivate their own inner lives.” We totally agree, Popester.

3.) Remember Facebook Shopping? Us Either: It’s a trend that could’ve been but never really took off: Facebook shopping. Bloomberg reported this week that JC Penney, Gamestop and Nordstrom are all shutting down their Facebook stores after slumping sales and waning interest. More proof that not everything int the world of Facebook marketing is guaranteed to be a smash hit.

4.) No, Free Cheddar Bay Biscuits Do Not Count as a Meal: On the other end of the spectrum, Red Lobster is the most recent brand to cave to Facebook fan pressure… but this time it was for a worthy cause. 56-year-old Robert Mills bemoaned on his Facebook page how he couldn’t afford a birthday dinner for himself and thought Red Lobster should offer a free meal deal like other chains do. After some campaigning and cajoling by Buzzfeed, Red Lobster happily gave Mills a free birthday dinner. Aww.

5.) Pimp My TV: Named as the No. 1 trend to watch at this year’s SXSWi, “Me-TV” is exploding already (and the festival isn’t even for a few more weeks). Me-TV, or customized video programming, is the next big thing and everybody from P Diddy to Shelby.tv is eager to cash in on the craze. Think of it as all of your regular and online viewing in one place and controlled by you. Marketers will be next in line to see how Me-TV can work for brands. Stay tuned.

If you happened to be watching HGTV on Fat Tuesday during a House Hunters marathon hosted by Michael Ian Black and thought to yourself “that guy is everywhere,” you are not alone. Black, who rose to fame in the ’90s on cult cable comedies like Viva Variety and The State, is suddenly a hot commodity and can be seen online in a new series of ads for Expedia, on television and on nearly every talk show. And it’s all because the comedian knows how to flawlessly work social media marketing.

To date, Michael Ian Black has nearly 2 million Twitter followers and he keeps the masses entertained by tweeting endlessly. During his Mardi Gras gig, Black played House Hunters bingo with Twitter followers, mocked drunken parade goers and even took time out to promote his soon-to-be-released book, You’re Not Doing it Right. Black takes the Twitter engagement a step further by regularly re-tweeting responses from his followers, something even B-list comedians don’t do. Black has carefully crafted himself as a pop culture commentator — and what better place to discuss that topic than social media?

The actor and author has submerged himself in social media since 2009 and can also be found on Tumblr and even MySpace. Now, his book is already having bang up pre-sales on Amazon and he’s chatting with the likes of Esquire magazine. Black has gone from being that guy from some ’90s shows to a real social media-made celebrity. And while we can’t all expect our tweets to land our brands on television, Black’s story is proof that social media marketing works when you mix hard work with humor, personality and one-on-one engagement.

Feeling those mid-winter, uninspired blahs when it comes to online marketing? We’ve got just the thing to get your brain moving: Our weekly list of five things you might have missed. This week’s fivesome features news stories, marketing innovations and social media ideas guaranteed to ignite your creative fires!

1.) Food + Fashion: This interview with Cupcakes and Cashmere creator Emily Shuman tops our list for proving that when we blog about the things we’re passionate about, the money is sure to follow. The former ad executive is making big dollars by covering fashion and food in her highly-read blog. Shuman is further proof of the blog as business model and we love it.

2.) The Golden Voice Returns: Remember Ted Williams, that homeless dude with the amazing voice? After a rough ride through the media ringer, Williams returned in a charity Twitter campaign for Kraft Macaroni and Cheese this week. Kraft donated thousands of boxes of mac’n'cheese for every #voiceoflove tweet they received to Feeding America. The campaign was a stand out on Valentine’s Day for showing the Twitter love for folks who really deserve it.

3.) Best Apology Ever: O.b. Tampons has made more than a few marketing mistakes over the last two years, so when the company pulled its o.b. Ultras from store shelves late in 2011, consumers were not happy. Instead of tweeting a “we’re sorry” message, the company came up with a now viral video that sets a new standard for creative corporate apologies. Without giving away the details, we’ll just say this hilarious and ingenious interactive spot is sure to put o.b. on the road to redemption.

4.) Even Zuckerberg’s Pinterest Crazy: We clocked Pinterest as the “it” social media site last year and having Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg sign up this week seems to confirm that prediction. Zuckerberg is already enthusiastically pinning and posting, proving that Pinterest is a social media force to be reckoned with.

5.) Here’s to New Voices, Too: With the sad passing of Whitney Houston and the downright bizarre Grammy awards from last weekend, it seemed like music could use a fresh face or two. Luckily, a super-viral Target commercial answered the call by introducing the planet to 11-year-old Denise Bestman from Staten Island. Her cover of Rolling in the Deep is evidence that talent and hope are found in unlikely places.

A few days ago, Forbes called out the lack of social media marketing skills displayed on Mitt Romney’s Facebook page. The Republican presidential hopeful proves to be tragically out of touch when it comes to Facebook for business. That could be fatal going up against Barrack Obama, who practically invented Facebook marketing. The main complaint with Romney’s page is a lack of character and interaction. We tend to agree — but we don’t think it’s just Romney who suffers a personality freeze-out on Facebook. Many brands haven’t adjusted their tighter, more corporate look and feel into Facebook pages and the results are robotic social media blather. So how does a big brand like Romney or a small business turn its Facebook page into something warm and inviting?

The easiest thing any brand can do to heat up that old Facebook page is chat. On Facebook, your brand is throwing the cocktail party and it’s up to you to provide the juicy conversation. Yes, you want to continuously pimp your products, but you also want to engage followers. Ask them questions and get to know them. Great Facebook conversations start with relevant topics and continue with snappy, thoughtful responses. Don’t just “Post and Ditch” as Forbes calls it. Facebook users went out of their way to Like your company, so give them great and engaging content. Post links to your own blog and industry-related blog. Ask your followers for their thoughts. Create Facebook status updates that ask questions and invite creative responses. Brands that use photos to start off the conversation have great success in getting people talking.

But what if, despite your best efforts, your Facebook page is still a barren, comment-free, icy tundra? Then keep going! Facebook marketing is only as successful as the continuing efforts that go into it. The average Facebook page takes three months to catch fire with consumers, so whatever you do, don’t stop. Pepper your Facebook page with the warm and inviting personality your company has in the real world and it’s sure to become a toasty place followers come back to over and over again.

The second in our four-part series discussing ways to increase blog traffic is all about growing your readership using the site you visit most: Facebook.

Consider this: A study last week from PEW found that Facebook users who share with friends of friends reach an average of 156,569 other people. Which brings up the questions at the heart of today’s blog traffic discussion — how many of your Facebook friends are reading your company’s blog? Or have you even told them that you have a blog? If you answered “Uh… none of them” to the first question and then just shamefully shook your head to the second question, you are not alone.

Many Facebook users who also use the social media mecca professionally are, for some odd reason, reluctant when it comes to promoting their blog and websites to friends. And that’s just dumb. It’s like being at the world’s biggest cocktail mixer and not handing out your business card to anyone. Everybody schmoozes and pimps themselves on Facebook and so should you.

Granted, there is an art form to promoting your blog to your Facebook friends. After all, you don’t want to be deleted for endlessly blathering about your company and how great you are. So in addition to talking about whatever the heck you normally talk about on Facebook, drop in a link once or twice a week to your blog. Facebookers love to post links to blogs they’ve read and therefore bloggers should always post links to blogs they’ve written. If you’re not bombastic but rather thoughtful about when and how you post professional links, chances are you’ll get a positive response. More than likely you’ll even get comments from those smarty pants friend of yours who want to start a discussion.

Remember, these people are allegedly your friends and are probably interested in what you’re doing. The same goes for promoting your company’s Like page on Facebook. If you personally have 400 friends on Facebook but your page only has a dozen or so likes, something has gone terribly wrong. Promote the blessed thing in your backyard first, then worry about world domination later. Just start small. Post your fantastic blog on Facebook and do it today. Sure, you might feel awkward about shameless self-promotion but you’ll get over it. Especially, when there’s 150,000 potential readers and buyers just waiting to bask in your brilliance.

Join us tomorrow when we talk about using the secret blogger handshake to get more readers while becoming a blogging superstar!