Social Media

By Steve Friedman, [email protected]

By Elizabeth Cogswell Baskin, [email protected]

Retailers are flocking to the visually enticing Pinterest site to engage with consumers. But the site can also be a powerful driver to engage employees.

Why is Pinterest suddenly such a big deal? For one thing, it’s exploding with growth. In September of last year, they had less than 2 million users. Now, it has 20 million users or more.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Walmart Foundation has joined with The Band Perry, Kimberly Williams-Paisley and four of the nation's largest food companies — General Mills, ConAgra Foods, Kraft Foods and Kellogg Company — to fight hunger this spring. At an event in Nashville, leaders of this effort launched a campaign that will enable millions of Americans the opportunity to get involved by shopping at Walmart or visiting the company's Facebook page today through April 30.

New York -- Facebook will purchase the photo-sharing application Instagram for about $1 billion in cash and stock, company CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Monday. The deal, which is the social-networking company’s largest acquisition to date, is expected to close later this quarter.

Instagram was named iPhone app of the year in 2011.

Facebook will acquire Instagram's entire team as part of the deal.

FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Staples has awarded five small businesses $50,000 in free advertising and cash as part of the “Give Your Small Business the Push It Needs” contest. 

Selected from hundreds of video entries submitted on Staples’ Facebook page (facebook.com/staples), each of the five small businesses will receive a total of $50,000 in local cable television advertising and cash in their home markets.

The winners include:

Fort Worth, Texas -- RadioShack Corp. said Thursday it has selected Grey New York as its lead advertising agency of record, concluding a review process that first launched last November.

"We're thrilled for the opportunity to collaborate with this team as we continue transforming our brand, with a sharp focus on building consumer awareness of our wireless offering and driving traffic into our stores," said Jim Gooch, president and CEO of RadioShack Corp.

Jeffrey Jones hit the marketing world’s equivalent of the lottery by landing the top marketing job at Target, a company with a well deserved reputation for clever campaigns and innovative brand activation strategies that will spend an estimated $1.4 billion on advertising this year. What more could a marketer ask for?

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — Walmart has revealed the 10 finalists that have been selected after the first round of public voting for its Get on the Shelf contest. According to the company, more than 4,000 inventors, entrepreneurs and small businesses from across the country submitted products into the contest and more than one million votes were cast in a tight race where the American public voted for items they would like to see carried by Walmart.