Social media experts like ourselves have been predicting the arrival of the branded social network for years. But the truth is many have tried but few brands have been able to inspire the kind of ongoing conversation and interaction needed to keep a social network alive. Yet Lego’s new attempt at branded social media might be just the thing to catapult the platform into mainstream popularity.

ReBrick is a little bit social, a little bit Pinterest, and 100 percent Lego. Lego is already one of the most photographed and shared brands on the Internet, so why not create a hub that serves as an exchange of all things awesomely Lego? And that is exactly what ReBrick intends to do. As a toy and iconic brand, Lego has always been about creating, so ReBrick highlights the best in Lego creations instead of the latest in Lego products. Mainly the project hopes to unite the millions of existing Lego-based communities that are spread all over the web. “Lego has a very strong and vibrant community, with hundreds of thousands of videos and many millions of pictures on online,” said Peter Espersen, Lego’s online community leader in an interview with Click Z News. “But they’re all distributed across hundreds of blogs and thousands of websites. It’s about giving fans the credit that they deserve and putting an amplifier to the interesting stuff they’re doing so everyone around the web can find it.” For Lego fans, ReBrick could prove to be the all-in-one stop for great ideas and creations from all over the web. For social media marketing gurus, the expansion of branded social networks could prove to be a challenge.

Granted, it takes a mega-brand like Lego to conquer its own social media platform but as niche networks expand, the need for the general social media management might diminish a tad. Custom-made social networks that speak directly to a vivid and enthusiastic audience are undoubtedly the wave of the future. And only time will tell how this will change the face of social media marketing.

Here’s a social media marketing experiment we invite you to try: Walk around your neighborhood, get the names of five or six small businesses and then Google them. We’re betting that most of the businesses have both a Facebook page, a website and a couple other social media accounts. And then there are surely a few that just have a website. But the most surprising finding will be companies that have solely a Facebook page, and we’re nearly positive that you’ll find a few of those. Relying solely on Facebook to get your company’s information out until you can afford a website is a big risk… plus it sounds crazy. But can it actually work?

Prompted by a late night craving, I recently discovered that the owners of my favorite neighborhood cupcake and frozen yogurt joint has clearly chosen to dive headfirst into Facebook until the website of their dreams can be built. The current website is just a “coming soon” page even though the business has been open for a number of months. The Facebook page, however, is a different story. The local business has chosen to use the page to list its hours, location and menu items. But beyond that, the page prominently features photos of crowds inside enjoying tasty treats, pictures of mouth-watering cupcake creations and status updates with new yogurt flavors. Not only do you get the basic “where are they and what time do they open” kind of information, but you also receive an updated, closer look at the company than a regular static website can really provide.

This neighborhood sweet spot isn’t alone in choosing to focus on Facebook first. Since 2009, big brands have been slowly moving away from marketing their websites to concentrate on Facebook marketing. This being said, traditional websites aren’t going anywhere. The point of social media marketing in the first place is to drive your followers back to your website. Proper Facebook management should always push readers to the website for more content. Websites are the digital hub of a brand and need to be capable of serving the masses. But until that awesome website can be built, Facebook is an effective — even tasty — alternative.

What a week! Between awards show cattiness, brand breakdowns and Internet shutdowns, there is no shortage of things to dish about. So let’s get right into all the latest online marketing news in a list we all know and love as our “Five Things You Might Have Missed.”

1.) Timeline App-valanche: In its short life, Facebook’s Timeline has been known for garnering a lot of resistance and headlines. We can now add apps to that list. Tons of blogs reported on the addition of Timeline apps this week because, love it or loathe it, Timeline is Facebook’s latest product and apps could be the next big thing in Facebook marketing.

2.) Lionel Richie, Free Speech Protector? This video from slick ad director Matthijs Volt may not have set out to say a lot about piracy and SOPA but by using dialogue from hit films (without permission) to recreate Lionel Richie’s hit “Hello” the video is the kind of thumbing of the nose the movement needs right now. Funny, brilliantly edited and released at a time of year when we celebrate film, this viral hit laughs at piracy laws and makes us smile, too.

3.) MINI is Red Hot and Social: The itty bitty car MINI has launched a giant Facebook campaign in which one of its cars is suspended on a hill by a rope with a Bunsen burner underneath, burning away at the rope. This crazy science experiment relies on Facebook page likes to release the car into the wild. Users who like the brand also get to check in on the car’s status.

4.) From Tart to Sour: This week, Pinkberry was the latest brand to hop onto to Twitter to put out a bad PR fire. Co-founder of the yogurt empire Young Lee was arrested after chasing down a transient and beating him with a tire iron. Company heads swiftly took to Twitter to state that Young has not been an active part of Pinkberry since 2010 and now serves solely as a stockholder. The company is desperately (and understandably) trying to distance itself from Lee, but given the amount of negative posts online, it might take more than a few tweets and a press release to make its image sweet again.

5.) Going Wiki-less: During the SOPA protests blackouts of Wednesday, many big websites shutdown services, and the most missed site had to be Wikipedia. Wiki withdraw proved how much we would miss uncensored unregulated information and the message was received loud and clear.

Another week has come to a close, which means another firestorm of social media marketing, digital branding and viral content headlines have probably passed you by. But before you get all Mister Pouty Pants on us, read our Five Things You Might Have Missed List and instantly feel better!

1.) Facebook Flavor: Lots of restaurants are using Facebook to show off menu items by enlisting the help of followers, and Subway’s Flavorizer is a fun one you might have missed. With 9 million-plus likes, Subway has called on its massive fan following to show off the ways they accessorize Subway breakfast sandwiches. The Flavorizer has a gallery of custom-made sandwiches with specialized ingredients, user-created menu names and photos of the Facebook fan who came up with the culinary creation. Yummy and innovative.

2.) Relationships? There’s an App for That: Just in time for Valentine’s Day, TheIceBreaker is a social media app for those couples who can’t stop texting or talking to each other. This “appdorable” tool works like a private Facebook wall with prompts and questions for couples to answer and comment on. While cute and buzzworthy, TheIceBreaker is also the first in many popular relationship- and friendship-based apps that are on the verge of becoming the next hottest trend in the genre.

3.) OMG D&G: The Italian-based fashion retailer Dolce & Gabbana faced a Facebook firing squad when news of discrimination came from the brand’s store in Hong Kong. Apparently security guards were instructed to forbid Hong Kongers from taking pictures while inside the store, but mainland Chinese tourists were give the okay to snap away. While this mainly sounds like the old turf war between Hong Kong and China, D&G didn’t make matters any better by ignoring the criticism and turning up its nose to the allegations.

4.) Google+ Games are on the Map: This February, Google+ throws its hat into the social gaming ring with Play Your World. The game smartly capitalizes on Google’s deeply-popular Goggle Maps and turns it into a fun globe-hopping game. It’s another cool product developed for Google+ that uses the company’s branding and, we’ll admit it… we can’t wait to play it.

5.) Boomerang Pizza: Finally, every so often we like to close out this list we a “so wrong, it’s right” type of viral ad and this Boomerang Pizza commercial from Spain certainly fits the bill. Just be warned: This beyond bizarre spot is NSFW/maybe anywhere else. Watch and discuss.

Brandsplat Report-Enzo’s 2012 Marketing Predictions from Enzo Cesario on Vimeo.

Enzo F. Cesario, Brandsplat’s CCO shares his marketing predictions for 2012.  Check it out! Or click here for more Brandsplat vids

Here’s Lesson Numero Uno from Social Media Marketing 101: Followers might not always tell you when they’re happy, but expect your Facebook page and Twitter account to light up like a Christmas tree when they’re unhappy. East coast grocery store chain Wegmans is the latest brand to experience this lesson in real life — and at the center of the brouhaha is actor Alec Baldwin.

Back in December, 30 Rock star Alec Baldwin raised more than a couple of eyebrows after refusing to shut off his smartphone aboard an American Airlines flight. Señor Baldwin was in the middle of a Words with Friends game and told flight attendants that he simply wasn’t going to turn his device off. The flight crew booted Baldwin off and “planegate” was born.

Days after the event, Wegmans quietly pulled its holiday ads featuring Baldwin and his mother, a vocal Wegmans devotee and shopper. Wegmans would later say the spots were yanked because a “couple dozen” of people complained about them, but that was nothing compared to the couple hundred of folks who angrily wanted Baldwin back on the air. Facebook petitions as well as postings on Wegmans’ wall were quickly set into motion to get the final commercials aired. Imagine! People actually wanting to see a commercial? And with Alec Baldwin, who can already be seen in a quartet of omnipresent ads for Captial One?

Nevertheless, Wegmans listened and last week announced they would be airing the commercials in the response to the “numerous” complaints they had received. The family-owned chain worked quickly to make the whole mess disappear and released a statement saying, “Clearly, many more people support Alec, as evidenced by the hundreds and hundreds of tweets, emails and phone calls we have received. We enjoyed working with Alec Baldwin and his mom, Carol, and would do it again. We appreciate all the kind things they have said about Wegmans and respect the good work they do for communities.”

All’s well that ends well, and it seems neither Baldwin nor Wegmans is the worse for wear. But our question is this, dear readers: When do you respond to a social media backlash and when do you stick to your guns? Sound off below!

Let’s go ahead and call 2012 the year that augmented reality took over Facebook marketing. “Aug-what?” you ask. Augmented reality, according to Wikipedia, is the “live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input such as sound, video, graphics or GPS data.” In case you don’t speak Wiki, we’ll translate for you: Augmented reality features computer generated elements mixed with real life media like photos and videos to create a hyperrealistic and fun experience.

Remember Orville Redenbacher, that kindly old gentlemen in the bow tie and glasses who used to sell popcorn on TV? Well, even though Orville’s been gone for quite some time, his popcorn lives on and is a leader in augmented reality and Facebook integration. The ConAgra-owned company invites users to play with their food on Facebook. The Pop Cam encourages fans to enable their webcams and try to catch virtual pieces of flying popcorn. The Pop Cam keeps track of the pieces users “catch” in their mouths and awards points. Naturally, as you play the game, messages for moms about the health benefits of popcorn routinely show up on the screen But the star here is the cool factor of augmented reality, a factor brands like Volkswagen have also tapped into.

Offering users a one-of-a-kind Facebook experience is now the goal of brands looking to take social media marketing to another level, and augmented reality does just that. Admittedly, augmented reality isn’t something for every brand as it’s still expensive to develop and produce. Even the folks at ConAgra say they toyed with the technology “for years.” But as with all social media innovations, the big brands seem to introduce and perfect them and the little guys take ‘em and run. So we bet that it’ll only be a matter of time until small brands figure out how to rock augmented reality Facebook pages.

In the world of Facebook marketing, trends and new groups are being periodically targeted as “the next demographic to explode on Facebook.” Two years ago, everyone talked endlessly about the upcoming wave of senior citizens who were taking to Facebook like a fish to water. Naturally, the next question on everyone’s mind was: Will older people interact with brands on Facebook?

In a word, yes. Two years following the senior social media boom (as well as the Betty White-ification of the Internet), Facebook is still a senior’s playground. A study from SocialCode that came out over the summer found that Facebook users over the age of 50 are 28 percent more likely to click an ad within Facebook than younger people. A recent giveaway from Wal-Mart awarded a senior center a new technology suite specifically designed so clients of the center could use email and Facebook. And many senior organizations are even offering classes on how to use social media.

Yet this explosion hasn’t translated to page “likes.” The same study from SocialCode notes that Facebook users who are 50 years old or older are nine times less likely to like a brand… even after they’ve clicked on its ad. Even the Betty White-endorsed AARP has only rung in a little over 80,000 likes on its Facebook page, while its actual membership is estimated to be in the 40 million-plus neighborhood.

So what gives? If this is one of the most powerful age groups on Facebook, why don’t they interact with brands?

Perhaps we overestimated the senior social media boom and what they use Facebook for. While we hate to stereotype, we think the 410,000 monthly users of Bingo on Facebook is more indicative of what older people really do online. All kidding aside, seniors admit to using the site to share photos, keep in touch with family and play games. Connecting with brands doesn’t even make their top five.

So does that mean we marketers should leave grandma alone with her Angry Birds and forget trying to get her to like our brands? Tell us, readers, in the comments section below!

Like the unpredictable weather or the follies of a local sports team, Facebook updates have become one of humanity’s favorite things to complain about. Generally speaking, people aren’t big fans of change, so when your cozy social media blanket looks and feels different, all hell breaks loose. Last week, Facebook unveiled its much-discussed and prematurely hated for no good reason Timeline. While regular folks are bemoaning the look and usability of Timeline, marketers are wondering what impact, if any, will the change have on social media marketing?

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has touted Timeline as a tool to share life experiences, while haters have labeled Timeline as the final death to online privacy. But what the heck is it, really? Timeline, according to ReadWriteWeb, “turns the profile into an illustrated browsable history of a user’s entire life, with major milestones and little moments smartly chosen by Facebook’s algorithm.” The look of Timeline is more graphic and less cluttered with Facebook’s blue and white branding. And that’s the good news. Facebook has need a facelift for some time and this new one will entice folks to spend even more time on the site. Also great is the user-controlled history that can be shared. Users have the ultimate say on what information is put on their timeline and when.

And that is also the bad news. Some Timeline critics claim that the app has the potential to take over-sharing of user information to new heights. There has been some concern that marketers will now have access to even more details on Facebook users lives, likes and loyalties.

The biggest negative we can see with Timeline, however, is that brand pages won’t have access to the new look. Social media marketing clients are now stuck using Facebook Pages and its ever-constrictive confines. Pages are become less about small businesses being able to spread the word about their companies and more about solicitation to advertise on Facebook.

But readers, you tell us what you think. Is Timeline a hit or a total miss? Let’s dish about it in the comments section below!

No need to face the freezing cold to get the best in online marketing, digital engagement and social media marketing news. Get cozy and pour yourself a steaming cup of a little drink we like to call “Five Things You Might Have Missed.”

1.) Merry Chucksmas: Whether you call them Chucks, Cons or just good old Converse, we call the Converse YouTube campaign sheer holiday genius. The series of hilarious clips features — including, among other things, a bulldog in space, a ska-loving santa and an uncomfortable elevator moment — are funny, stylish and smart. These ads are the kind of viral gold every marketer wants in their stockings this year.

2.) Talk to Your Elf: Here’s a little North Pole Facebook fun from the folks at Build-A-Bear Workshops. “Get Your Wish On” is the company’s new Facebook app that allows kids to talk to “real” elves live from the North Pole in a video chat. It’s social media marketing mixed with holiday cheer and we’re sure kids and parents will eat it up.

3.) Ready for Take-Off: The end of 2011 has been piled so high with a plethora of Google products that surely one or two has slipped by you. Among the coolest is Google Flights, which officially went live last week. Great-looking, easy to use and super fast, Google Flights is a must use for business and holiday travelers alike.

4.) Big Apple Wilderness: REI, a brand mainly associated with rugged outdoor settings, is taking on New York City with a slick augmented reality app. In celebration of the opening of the company’s SoHo store, REI is asking New Yorkers to scan codes on the brand’s posters around the city. The app opens up virtual landscapes while sharing information about real-life nature adventure opportunities to be found right in the Big Apple.

5.) Gadget-induced Giving Back: We round out this week’s list with a campaign from eBay which hopes to inspire the child in all of us to give back this holiday season. Two teched-out window displays in San Francisco and New York City, respectively, feature moving trains and smiling teddy bears. The catch? It’s all digitally animated and by scanning a toy’s QR code with your smartphone, users can donate the toy to Toys for Tots while activating a dazzling animated and interactive display. Folks everywhere can get in on the action, too, by visiting the website.