This week was busy, but it flew. Not much went on in terms of excitement, but hopefully that changes tomorrow night as I head into NYC for the #NotAtSXSW party sponsored by Teresa Cantwell & PRCog. I’ll be there for a few hours, maybe I’ll see you there.

Times sells Disney its front page for $700K – Now this article itself strikes me as pure marketing genius on behalf of both the LA Times and Disney. Both gain what they are looking for – Disney gets publicity for their soon-to-be blockbuster starring Johnny Depp and the Times gets the revenue that they so desperately need. Now I know that some journalists noted in the piece are mad at the paper for “selling out” or pissed that they had to turn through a page or two to read about Afghanistan or health care reform. To be honest – both will still be debated until the cows come home – so save it. They should also remember that newspapers are a business hurting for advertising of any kind. I wonder how quick they’d flip the other way if papers like the Times asked them to turn down more money to write for a competitor or online pub.

A bike theft in the age of Twitter – This is a real-world story from the NY Times that shows how a bike messenger retrieved his stolen bicycle through Twitter and other social and word of mouth networks.

PR Stress Relief – This post is from Kate Ottavio at the PR Breakfastclub and kind of hits home. I am not the best person dealing with stress and often mix said stress with anger. So needless to say it’s something that I continually work on. Some good tips in the comments.

Ultimate Stuck-In-Your-Head Mixtape – now this needs no introduction but definitely worth adding into the mix as a way to get out of a fun from my good buddy Mike Schaffer.

The 11 Commandments of Corporate Tweeting – Its always interesting to see a list that one-ups the original list of 10 commandments. This list is full of great tips for any pro heading up or manning a corporate account.

Oh and as a bonus, here’s a video to make you hungry from the NHL and Hershey’s – The making of the chocolate Stanley Cup:

I decided to do this video after reading this Mashable article where CNN dubbed Facebook as a major competitor. Instead of worrying about beating Facebook, CNN should look to partner with the social giant to crush their traditional competitors.  What do you think?

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have an infatuation with hooded sweatshirts and own a lot of them.  So when I saw this video earlier today on other uses for them, I found it interesting. Hey you can keep warm and carry your computer if you get to hot – or are too cheap to by a bag.

However, when looking at the related videos, I saw this one on using a hoody for a baby carrier. It’s kind of disturbing and I hope no one would really try that.

Think this was a case of trying too hard to be funny or something feasible?

While the recipe mentioned in the title might imply that I am looking to cook up a mean batch of Thai chicken, it’s actually two companies adding value to their coupons in the circular from my Sunday Globe.

So how does that start a conversation?

Last week, I blogged on how offline advertisements were being wasted by neglecting to add call outs to the company’s social media assets. While the wife was planning out our strategy to look at some condos and houses on the market, I decided test my rant’s viability in the coupons section. After pouring through the two-inch thick glossy pile of ads, I was left looking at only two that acknowledged their social media presence – Boston Market and Planters – kind of sad knowing that I looked at roughly 200 coupons and was hoping for a better showing than a pair of social media call-outs, but hey Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Now prior to seeing these ads, I had no clue as to the social presence of either of these mega-brands, so let’s give ‘em a look.

Boston Market

Now for starters the offers looked tasty, but the mere buttons noting Twitter and Facebook were kind of frustrating as they made me do some work to get to the chicken joint’s pages. Following the principle of vanity URLs in Facebook, it was pretty easy getting to the company’s page there. The landing page offered some more deals, which is good because it fits the consistency of the callout but also offers information on job openings, a VIP club and store locator. The added benefit is that they call out their catering menu, which could be worthwhile for those office managers looking at a health alternative to Chinese and pizza deliveries.

Since the Facebook search went so well, I figured I would type in http://twitter.com/bostonmarket. Instead of a scrumptious image of chicken staring at me, I saw the blue Twitter bird saying the account has been suspended. Now if I were an average consumer I would end my quest for the page. No worries, Google helped me and the account is http://twitter.com/BostMarket. The account looks fairly active but has only a limited amount to offer. For a brand as large as they are, I expect them to have more to offer. I will give them the benefit of the doubt for a slow embrace by the corporate home office of social media, but the URL is a complete fail. So while the company is heading in the right direction of maximizing their offline real estate, a URL is a must. If it’s too cluttered, simply alternate pages.

Planters

While the guys over at Boston Market wet my appetite, the guys at Planters took it to the house with this ad. Not only does it promote the company’s presence at the Final Four and offer the Facebook logo, but it also gives the URL and lets you know what to expect with Follow Mr. Peanut to the Final Four. How could you not want to check out the fan page of a giant nut with a monocle and top hat? Well those allergic to peanuts have an excuse, but other than that, there is no excuse.

The page offers some pics and thoughts from the mascot, but is lacking the pizzazz of a page with static FBML. It would also be nice to have some kind of coupons or list of fun peanut facts, but that’s just nitpicking. The company is still driving traffic to the page so their fan total of 2,142 should grow rather quickly.

While the Sunday paper didn’t offer more companies that were driving more visitors to their pages, at least it is a start. Hopefully this trend continues to grow because two out of 200 is far from good. What do you think of the ads? Where could Boston Market and Planters have improved?

I’m going to start this week’s Five for Friday re-hashing a hoax that I got caught up in on Monday evening: HOAX: Amber Alert License Plate ‘98B351′ – Now this article is not, new and is actually pretty old. And I am not ashamed to hear that I got caught up in a hoax or feel foolish as some folks tweeted or commented on the article. The fact of the matter is that a hash tag about an Amber Alert is something that can really help a child in need and should be passed along without thinking twice. The folks that make these up should be ashamed of themselves, and are some seriously sick douche bags. So now with that out of the way, here’s to a fun weekend with Christina, Kate & TJ and this week’s edition.

The State of the Twittersphere 2010 – I am always fascinated with these reports as they come out. So please forgive me if you are growing sick of seeing them and skip to the next story. The most interesting stat to me is the graph below that shows the rates of re-tweets during the day.

How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data – The guys at Mashable offer a great case study into some of the things that Rapleaf can do. I would be interested in seeing how this data is presented on a granular level. Is it like age demographics or can we dive into the user X, Y, & Zs stats? No matter how you slice it, you know it was only a matter of time before our breadcrumbs were mined.

Marketing Budgets Spiral Toward Social – While this report may look promising to those looking for a gig straight out of college, I also see them as a sign that companies are panicking. Social media is the new cool buzz word and companies want to toss money towards the space with an almost reckless abandon. I would argue that companies don’t want to be left in the dark and are using their tried and true if you throw money at it, customers will come mentality. I’d look at Gary Vaynerchuck’s patience video below in terms of seeing success in social media. It takes time and effort along with some elbow grease to build up a community that works for your company.

Think Before You Tweet: The Do Not Tweet List – This is an awesome article. While social media has given people from all walks of life an audience. One thing it doesn’t do is grant access to be stupid. Check out this article for some good pointers when letting employees know about using social media right.

Toyota turns to Twitter to repair image – my question for this one is it too little, too late? With all of the recalls coming in, you wonder if Twitter can help repair the brand. I would argue that this should have been done from the start instead of their cheesy commercial, but I guess better late than never.