To celebrate this week’s Facebook IPO bonanza, we’ve dedicated our Five Things You Might Have Missed blog entirely to Facebook marketing, news and management! You’re not going to want to skip this one — well, unless you work for GM.

1.) Facebook Got Run Over by a Car Company: Just as planet Wall Street was getting ready to pop bottles over the initial public offering for Facebook, GM had to rain on their parade. The car maker announced on Wednesday that it would be pulling a massive $10 million dollars in Facebook ads. The reason? “They don’t work.” Facebook isn’t a place for shoppers, according to GM. Ouch. Way to be a downer, GM. But seriously, we all sort of saw this coming (and kind of agree.)

2.) And they’re off! Facebook threw its hat in the race to become the next Groupon this week alongside heavy hitter American Express. AMEX and Facebook are just two of dozens of Groupon wannabes out there in BrandingLand, but unlike those other clones, these two have the financial chutzpah to potentially take a chunk out of Groupon’s business. It’ll be a race to the finish to see who really profits as deal mania finally tapers off.

3.) Hype ‘Rises:’ So maybe Facebook doesn’t work so great for that whole ad thing, but you can’t argue with its power as a hype machine — especially when it comes to entertainment. The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment in the Christopher Nolan Batman films, is a great example of how Facebook can pimp a product brilliantly without ever having to purchase an ad. Loaded with clips and exclusive contests, TDKR’s page is a one-stop-shop for fanboys and movie freaks.

4.) IPOh, I get it: We were a tad baffled on how Facebook would actually make money on this IPO thing, so thankfully those folks at CNN did a great job of explaining how an Internet brand becomes a cash making machine.

5.) Ads in Action: It was all well and good to hear about GM’s dissatisfaction with Facebook advertising, but how do they really work for the little guy? According to our final must-read on the list, not too darn good. This fascinating NPR piece about Pizza Delicious in New Orleans breaks down the numbers, dollars and likes behind purchasing a real-life Facebook ad. Eye opening stuff that could sway small business owners who are trying to decide whether or not to dip their feet in the Facebook waters.

The great thing about cooking up custom content is that when you get tired of your cramped office, you can always take your show on the road to your local coffee shop or library. Yet this tried-and-true blogging getaway tool backfired on me recently as I escaped to my neighborhood Starbucks. I’m not finicky and I can usually write in loud places with lots of distractions. Some of my best writing sessions went down at a noisy and dramatic all-night laundromat in East Los Angeles. Yet for some reason, this Starbucks on this day was blogging hell. Blasting reggae, an older gentlemen who appeared to be speaking into a megaphone to everyone who walked in the door and a never-ending series of annoying beeps coming from God knows where were just a few of the things standing in the way of my blogging excellence. So it made me wonder: Would a picture-perfect blogging environment be more conducive to creativity or am I doomed to distraction based on my own mental condition du jour?

In my years tinkering on a laptop, I’ve experienced both blogging extremes. I used to blog quietly in a cool, dark and totally silent corner of a library in Santa Monica. I found this serene little foxhole fostered productivity quite beautifully. Still, this perfect condition had a condition of its own. For this blogging-for-business wizard, my magic only happens if I’m prepared. I can be writing on a secluded island or in a bustling shopping mall and if I’m not ready, I can expect to produce nothing than perhaps a few witty Tweets about how screwed and uninspired I am. I need a game plan. If I’m just researching and flipping through the old Google Reader, that can happen anywhere but ideally should go down long before I sit down to write. Even just a few ideas scratched down on notebook paper can make the world of difference when it comes to easy and inspired blog writing.

My blogging paradise also needs to be disconnected from the Internet. Blasphemy, I know… but the temptation to fry my brain on Facebook or read celebrity gossip on RadarOnline is too high. So I find success happens when I create in Word or some other non-online program before I post on my blogging platform. Once I hopped off of social media and looked over my ideas for the week, that annoying Starbucks was just as good as my secret blogging hideout in Santa Monica. But that’s just me.

Readers, you tell us — what’s your idea of blogging nirvana? Do you need a special writing destination or can you make the magic happen anywhere? Spill your blogging secrets in the comments section below!

We here at Brandsplat are not just experts in ghostwriting and savvy blog creation — we also dabble in all things online marketing. And we know better than anybody how important it is to keep bloggers happy. Bloggers are this generation’s version of on-the-scene reporters, and influential bloggers can truly make or break a company. So it isn’t surprising that many companies bend over backwards to make sure bloggers are “loving it.”

McDonald’s has a turbulent history with digital engagement. The fast food giant is often pegged as the planet’s foremost purveyor of heart disease and diabetes; online critics aren’t shy at all about stretching Ronald and Co. over the rack. The brand battles huge image issues on nearly every digital platform. 2012 has already seen the #McFail disaster, wherein a Twitter hashtag campaign backfired on the company. So when it comes to the super-costly and mega-high-stakes marketing of its partnership with the Olympics, McDonald’s is doing whatever it can to keep bloggers fat and happy, so to speak.

The Huffington Post reported last week that McDonald’s has assembled some 400 bloggers. This blogging army, according to HuffPo, has been plied with all-expense-paid vacations and lavish gifts. And all McDonald’s wants in return is a slew of positive posts about its brand and products. The high-cost, high-profile blogging campaign will be rolled out over the next few months in the UK, just in time for the Summer Games. Organizers are hoping to show bloggers how easy it is to use Facebook and Twitter to promote their glowing McBlogs. Shifty? Unethical? Sleazy? Perhaps for regular journalists — but this is blogging, so all bets are off! McDonald’s has a long history of trying to buy off bloggers — most recently with a mommy blogger experiment that backfired in 2011.

Mickey D’s isn’t the only company who tries to sway bloggers. Marie Callendar’s, Levis and nearly every cosmetic company under the sun (just to name a few) have all openly appealed to bloggers in hopes of a few kind (and influential) words. So, readers, we ask you: Does this practice make good digital marketing sense or does it make you want to take a shower? Let us have it in the comments section below!

In a week filled with political bombshells, high-profile deaths (RIP Maurice Sendak and Vidal Sassoon) and Mother’s Day marketing mania, you might have forgotten to get caught up on the latest digital engagement and online marketing news. But we’ve got you covered with a little list we call our Five Things You Might Have Missed.

1.) Long-lasting Banner Flavor Goodness: While Stride gum may not have the catchy jingle that Big Red had back in the day, the chewing gum has made quite a name for itself for being a long-lasting confection. And its latest ploy for chewing gum domination comes in the form of the world’s longest banner ad. Digital Buzz Blog turned us on to the ad that challenged eager clickers to click and hold the targeted area for as long as they could. The winner clocked in at 46 minutes and 27 seconds and walked away with $500 bucks, while Stride might just have created a new banner ad-gaming sub-genre.

2.) Spammer Convention: Our friends in Sweden have come up with a nifty way to thwart spamming — throw a spammer summit! Microsoft and Hotmail Sweden are the forces behind Spammers Aid, a new campaign set on educating spam marketers on new and innovative techniques in online marketing that don’t involve blowing up innocent folks’ inboxes. Spammers will attend a seminar in Stockholm this summer, and we think it’s a swell idea.

3.) Prison Cuisine: Over in Spain, marketers for the J.J. Abrams’ drama Alcatraz delivered a little bit of the famous prison to some adventurous eaters. “Lucky” Spanish diners got to eat like the incarcerated when they ordered their meals online, receiving prison food packaged on metal trays and stuffed in boxed (filled with Alcatraz swag like magnets, of course). The limited time promo brilliantly pushed the show’s premise and TV fans got a whole new version of the TV dinner.

4.) Apps and Likes: Mobile marketing, social media marketing and app development all converged in a marketing supernova this week when Facebook announced it will be opening its own app store! Now all of those Facebook apps that you see your friends feverishly downloading will be in one place. More of a hub and less of a traditional store, we’re anxious to see if this will amp up Facebook app development — especially those from big brands.

5.) When Mama Tweeted Obama: Lastly, it seems, like everybody else, we can’t stop talking about the President of the United States this week. On Mother’s Day, one lucky mom will have the chance to actually tweet with the Commander in Chief. The grassroots Twitter marketing fundraising effort hopes that a personalized tweet from Barack Obama on Mother’s Day is incentive for one lucky winner to bring in at least five other donations.

Holidays are usually a time when the web is abuzz with the latest seasonal viral video hits designed to bring in big dollars while capitalizing on the festive spirit of the moment. Marketers, especially near Mother’s Day, pour their creative hearts and souls into online video creation. But this year, the star-studded viral video everybody is talking about is for a campaign that urges people around the globe not to celebrate Mother’s Day.

Every Mother Counts is the non-profit organization founded by former supermodel Christy Turlington Burns to raise awareness about the health complications that women around the globe face when they are expecting and giving birth. Nearly 358,000, according to Every Mother Counts, die each year due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth. For each woman who dies every year during childbirth, at least 20 to 30 additional mothers suffer from lifelong debilitating disabilities. Turlington Burns is using Mother’s Day as a platform to draw national attention to these shocking statistics and, like any good online marketer, she’s got a video to help get her message across. While not yet KONY-esque in views, Every Mother Counts has been grabbing headlines and racking up views (around 52,000 as this blog was written) mainly due to the serious star power in the video. Debra Messing, Jennifer Connelly, Kelly Rutherford, Blythe Danner and Ann Curry are just a few of the famous faces in the spot. Yet the campaign is also gaining notoriety for its call to action. Turlington Burns and her famous friends want moms around the country to stay silent on Mother’s Day. No phone calls. No status updates. No brunch with the kiddies. All in what the ad calls “an act of solidarity for at-risk mothers around the world.” Facebook is promoting the day of silence, too, with information on the campaign and donation gift ideas to take the place of traditional flowers and chocolates.

Naturally, many traditional types think Turlington Burns is off her rocker. Some blogs have even painted her as an extremist trying to ruin a great holiday. We suspect these are people from Hallmark. But how do you feel? Can a video that calls for silence on Mother’s Day really make a difference? And as a viral content campaign, does No Mother’s Day hit or miss its mark? Sound off below!

Yesterday we couldn’t help snickering just a little at the Mashable infographic entitled “Rise of the Mommy Blogger.” The title made it sound like some kind of bad ’50s horror movie — not to mention that the images of cartoon aprons and girly colors they used were beyond silly. But “mommy bloggers” themselves are nothing to laugh at. According to a new study from Scarborough Research, 3.9 million moms in the United States identify as bloggers. The average mommy blogger salary is a not-too-shabby $84,000 a year. Moms who read or contribute to blogs are also 52 percent more likely to have college degrees than moms who don’t. Clearly these are some smart cookies who have figured out how to making blogging a business — so we wondered if these savvy mamas could teach us a thing or two about blog marketing.

The biggest thing us blogging for business mere mortals can learn from mommy bloggers is this: When it comes to marketing, you gotta diversify. Look at the top 10 mommy bloggers. All of them, from “The Bloggess” to “Dooce,” market their blogs and themselves in a variety of ways. Mommy bloggers know you have to throw a lot of spaghetti to make something stick, so that’s why you’ll see these bloggers everywhere from Google+ to PBS. The aforementioned Bloggess is such a masterful Twitter marketing maven that her tweets are almost like their own creative entity. Bottom line: If you want folks to read your company’s blog, you, too, should adopt this kind of no-stone-unturned marketing.

Another thing we can learn from mommy bloggers is to use our own experiences. Readers flock to bloggers with real opinions and stories. Hallow advice with no soul won’t be read, won’t generate ad revenue and won’t bring people to your brand. Like we’ve said before, you don’t have to tell readers your whole life story. But injecting your blog with personality is vital in this day and age. Top 3 blogger Catherine Connors, who pens HerBadMother.com, is a master at giving readers an honest look at her life (and in the meantime, she’s built an online publishing empire).

Finally, mommy bloggers can teach us blog writing robots how to turn our blogs into products. The best mommy blogs on the Internet are able to transcend the mom with the pastel apron blogging about cookies on her pink laptop. Instead, these savvy writers are giving birth to creative properties that can move into magazines, books and other revenue. True, not all of us want to be the next blogging superstar; heck, most of us mainly just want our blogs to look great and help drive folks to our sites. But why not aim for blog excellence in the meantime?

Good blog creation can rope in a ton of readers and help establish a brand. Great blog creation can literally create a brand itself and put a whole new identity on the map. Think we’re exaggerating? Then please explain to us how a series of drawings posted on a blog wound up becoming the fashion world’s hottest new magazine.

In spring of 2010, a little BlogSpot blog entitled Lula: The Subject I Know Best debuted with little initial fanfare. The blog had a mysterious mix of fashion photos and some incredible illustrations by the Lula, the faceless blogger behind the operation. Within a year, the blog was the talk of the fashion industry. The site was now almost entirely made up of Lula’s drawings and she developed an enthusiastic fan base. In fall 2011, Lula’s artistic blog empire was taken to whole new heights when she released Herself. With no models, no celebrity interviews and no highly-paid photographers, Herself made headlines and sold out at newsstands. The secret? It is the world’s first entirely illustrated fashion magazine. In an interview with the Daily Beast, Lulu said, “It’s about creating a point of view of fashion that celebrates the beauty and the excitement of it. We don’t need to choose wearable pieces, and we don’t need to celebrate the commercial value. We have the luxury of celebrating the creativity of fashion.”

Released on April 2nd, the second issued of Herself has gathered a firestorm of publicity for its creative fashion layout featuring drawings of famous actresses and the characters they’ve played — Kristen Stewart and Snow White, Madonna and Eva Peron and Meryl Streep and Margaret Thatcher — all “shot” wearing the latest couture and with one another. The issue is already tough to get your hands on and readers are clamoring for the next edition.

Herself is the kind of blog-branding success story we love simply because it capitalizes on being different by mixing old with new media, art with commerce and innovation with plucky spirit. The media picked up and ran with this story for that very reason. So let Herself be the battle cry of inspiration that helps our blogging for business become a truly memorable work of art.

Honesty in Facebook marketing?! Kitties attacking all kinds of webpages?! Freaky job postings?! What the heck is going on? Fear not. We sort it all out just for you in our weekly list of Five Things You Might Have Missed.

1.) The Sarah Phillips Warning: This week, Sarah Phillips made headlines for getting fired from ESPN after a Deadspin article painted the columnist as a con artist with several identities who help spearhead some big-time Internet scams. The scandal reminds us that if you’re hiding something, bloggers will always find it — and no brand is above being occasionally duped.

2.) Kitty Cat Attack! As YouTube has proven time and time again, everything is better with cats. So cat treat maker Temptations is letting Facebook fans put cats everywhere they go online. The Kitty Hijack app available on Temptations Canada’s Facebook page gets dragged into your bookmark bar and then the feline fun is unleashed as kittens crawl all over any site you visit. The funny, frenetic frenzy is Facebook and online marketing purrfection.

3.) Help Wanted: Here’s a jaw-dropping print campaign from the UK for the non-profit Freedom from Torture. Made to look like a job posting, these ads boldly seek to fill the positions of “Torturer,” “Abuser” and “Kidnapper.” Bent on making a point and standing out in an employment-starved climate, Freedom from Torture turns a simple classified ad into something unforgettable.

4.) Rocking Crowdsourcing: We love to see a spunky individual who can turn themselves into a brand by using online and social media marketing, and nobody better personifies these attributes than musician Amanda Palmer. David Meerman Scott profiles Palmer’s ingenious way of using Kickstarter to fund her new album on WebInkNow and we think it’s worth the read. Palmer has raised more than $350,000 and the total goes up nearly every minute, thanks in large part to her huge social media following.

5.) Coming Clean with Social Media Flubs: Common Sense Media’s goal is to help parents control their children’s use of Facebook and mobile phones. To get the message out, the group has released a series of funny TV ads. In the spots, parents admit to their social media flubs and misconceptions. Tech- and Facebook-addicted kids are a very real, very “now” issue and Common Sense attacks it with humor and heart.

Is your blog writing just too darn genius? Do you have way too many readers? Are you constantly applauded for your amazing blog marketing and want it to stop? If you answered ‘yes’ to one or more of these, then make sure you implement these sure-to-fail blogging techniques as soon as possible! (Everybody else, feel free to use this list as a “How not to blog” reminder:)

1.) Write Flat, Boring Headlines: If you’re looking to repel readers in record time, make sure you put no thought into your headlines. This way, you’re sure to come up with stale wording that won’t inspire folks to come back. Otherwise, you may fall into the trap of writing snappy headlines, which is an easy way to rope in new audiences. And be careful, because the Internet is filled with articles on just how to do just that.

2.) Over-promote Your Blog: Here’s one we’ve seen a lot lately… Some bloggers go bananas on the promotion and cover every corner of the Internet and any social media platform that will stand still with “Read my blog!!” desperation pleas. If you’re trying to get your hit count down, too much online marketing is a great way to turn readers off. You know you can’t afford to relax and count on readers to reject you, especially with all that great content and your solid (but not hyperactive) blog marketing plan. A simple blog and then tweet combo is the devil in these situations.

3.) Don’t Try Anything New: Haven’t had any luck growing your blog using your old methods? That’s great… By all means, don’t change a thing. But supposing you get to a place where you want to grow your audience, why not try something new that you’ve always wanted to try? Think your blog would be a hit on Google+? Want to dip your toes into the guest-blogging waters? Ready to pepper your blog with amazing interviews? Now is the time! Fresh content needs fresh ideas so mix it up — but only if you want people to read what you’ve written. Think about it.

4.) Stop Being Passionate: Try write about things you don’t love and just watch the readers drop like flies. Seriously, the No. 1 blogging-for-business killer has got to be a lack of passion. Readers can sniff out a bored blogger from a mile away. The thing is if you are unhappy and hate what you’re writing, chances are your readers will too! Don’t be afraid to try this one if you’re hoping to send your readership figures into single digits.

Now go out there and “meh” everybody to death!

It’s been a while since we’ve seen a good, old-fashioned soda smack-down contest between Coke and Pepsi. But as the summer months approach, both beverage giants are getting ready to release some seriously competitive social media marketing maneuvers and we the next generation of the cola wars brewing.

Yesterday, Pepsi unveiled its latest marketing weapon: Pepsi Pulse. Pepsi Pulse is an interactive social media dashboard that covers all things pop culture happening right now. The enticing, headline-driven dashboard is right on trend for Pepsi’s “Live for Now” campaign, which launches on May 7. Pepsi Pulse hopes to cash in on our thirst for the latest pop culture headlines by using Twitter hashtags like #LiveforNow and #Now on tweets about celebrities, movies, music and television.

“Pepsi Pulse is a cheat sheet for pop culture,” Shiv Singh, global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages, told Mashable. “It’s not enough anymore to have phenomenal TV ads — brands have to do more.”

Pepsi Pulse is hoping to evoke memories of its past memorable ads featuring pop culture icons like Britney Spears, Michael Jackson and Madonna.

Speaking of music, Coca-Cola is going all in on a partnership with Spotify to push its Coca-Cola Music campaign this summer.

“We want to… have a sustained conversation around music with our consumers because it is an everyday passion point for them. This is just the next chapter in that evolution where you take the product and the services and social ability of Spotify and bring it into the Coca-Cola brand experience,” says Joe Belliotti, director of global entertainment marketing for Coca-Cola, in an interview with indystar.com.

Coke and Spotify will be rolling their global music domination campaign this summer during the Olympic games. Expect Coke’s Facebook page to serve as the hub for the partnership.

Which “sodie pop” is gonna wind up on top after all the Facebook and Twitter marketing moves are said and done? Stay tuned. In a summer filled with big sporting events and major marketing opportunities, the battle is just heating up.