Buddy Media and Twitter have partnered on an "age-screening" solution for brands who want to check on followers where age-sensitive products are concerned, like alcohol.

The free service for marketers has been in beta-testing for a months with a select group of alcohol brands including Brown Forman’s Jack Daniels, Jim Beam’s Skinny Girl feed, and MillerCoors' Coors Light and Miller Lite.

“Until now, companies have had to develop their own custom, one-off “age-screening” solutions. The result has been a patchwork of solutions with different approaches, processes and levels of success,” wrote Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow.Continue reading...

Facebook wants to become your job board of choice and your online bank, as it vies to drive engagement, utility and users' virtual homepage on the web and mobile.

The social network is supporting an innovative app (now in beta) from Australia's Commonwealth Bank, which would enable customers to make payments to third parties and Facebook friends on the site, using its own authentication system, as it currently does for its online customers and its CommBank Kaching mobile app users.

"There are certain things, whether itʼs financial services, or banking where I donʼt necessarily want my friends to know exactly what Iʼm doing, right? I want to be able to go in and have an experience with my advisor or my bank and have that be a one-on-one experience," said David Robinson, Facebook's director of global marketing solutions, U.S. financial services, to Fortune.

While Facebook declined to confirmed other banks it's working on virtual banking services with, a spokesperson did comment to Fortune: "Facebook is a platform and a partnership company. We are supportive of brands and agencies, across industries, using the platform to better serve their customers."Continue reading...

As Pinterest starts to overtake Twitter and other websites for referral traffic, it's a tough act to follow. But The Fancy is ready to give it a try.

Geared at fans of great design who already love to suggest new brands and products to their social networks, Mark Zuckerberg and Kanye West are fans of The Fancy, and backers include Ashton Kutcher and PPR head François-Henri Pinault.

But unlike Pinterest, it's not so much about visual scrapbooking as is about generating sales of recommended products, turning users into affiliates. And unlike Klout, no credit is received for influence, only for actual purchase, rewarding users for their taste and influence. It's powering more than $10,000 in sales per day. Modest, but it's a start for a brand that describes itself as “part store, blog, magazine, and wishlist.”Continue reading...

SimCity Social is now out of beta and live on Facebook, as a free-to-play version of the virtual city-building video game that spawned a Sim empire. "SimCity Social will entice a new generation of urban planners with its easy-to-use tools that allow anyone to expand and grow their own unique sprawling metropolises and watch as it comes to life in fun and unexpected ways," commented Jami Laes, VP of Global Studios for Playfish, which collaborated with Maxis to make it happen.Continue reading...

In a bid to set a new standard for “Socially Devoted” companies, a new Socialbakers study identifies businesses that succeed with open and responsive social communications, creating a benchmark for how businesses can drive customer engagement through such social media strategies.

“By defining Socially Devoted companies, we wanted to start a discussion in the industry,” said Socialbakers CEO Jan Rezab. “Socially Devoted companies communicate openly, actively respond to fans and make sure customers receive a quick answer to feedback or questions. Socially Devoted companies set a new global standard that other businesses can adopt to improve their social media marketing strategy.”Continue reading...

Anybody who has even touched Facebook this week will be aware of the controversy a single cookie can make.

Kraft's Oreo brand chose to make a simple statement, in this visual social era, to show support for June 25th as Gay Pride Day with a rainbow-colored twist on its iconic cookie. The 100-year-old cookie brand posted a photo on its Facebook page on Monday depicting a gay pride-themed six-layer cookie with rainbow-colored creme filling and the words “June 25 | Pride” and the comment, “Proudly support love!”

It was also clear it wasn't real, with a small line of text reading "Made with creme colors that do not exist." 

The maelstrom of divided comments from its 26 million FB followers shows the deep division over the issue and the entrenched homophobia still alive (and unwell) — and also raises the question about whether brands should take a political stance and show their support for the LGBT community. (We say yes; your thoughts?)Continue reading...

Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo just tried something a little different on Pinterest: a social marketing/branded content campaign, the "Uniqlo Dry Mesh Project," that aimed to cut through ‘scrolling slumber’ with a simultaneous pinning event (some might say hacking) that animate the images in real time to catch users' attention on the social scrapbooking site.

A series of branded mosaics were posted simultaneously on Pinterest across multiple categories (such as "Geek"). As users scroll through their favorites they encounter the giant blocks of images that coalesce into a larger, branded mosaic that appeared to animate on scrolling down. Images of Dry Mesh T-shirts — which are designed to keep the wearer dry by wicking away sweat — created the mosaics. The result was certainly a visually arresting animation for an otherwise visually boring, mono-colored product.Continue reading...

Facebook is starting to migrate its "sponsored stories" (user-generated ads) onto other websites, starting with that of social game behemoth Zynga, in order to expand its marketing reach. And in another telling move, the social media giant is backing away from its philanthropic Credits program — launched with high hopes in 2009 as the virtual currency for the social network.

They're the latest steps by a social giant struggling to shore up its revenue model. The site's new partnership with Unilever on Waterworks, a cause marketing app that lets users donate online credits while revealing key ad targeting data, signals how Facebook is evolving its commerce platform in order to boost F-commerce opportunities.Continue reading...