EMARKETER — Most wealthy Internet users in the US are optimistic about the economy going forward, according to Ipsos Mendelsohn, and their online spending has historically been higher than average. That should make them attractive to retailers, which are increasingly turning to social networks to attract customers. But will affluents be as receptive to social marketing as other Web users?...

VIRTUAL GOODS NEWS — This week Boomerang Offerwall announced its entry into the ad offer space, with a new crowdsourced product that may set it apart from its rivals. Where most ad offer networks serve ad offers based primarily on location, Boomerang Offerwall allows users who've accepted an offer to rate it with a thumbs up or thumbs down. Highly-rated offers rise to the top of the offerwall so they'll be visible to as many users as possible, while poorly-rated offers will sink to the bottom or be removed outright by Boomerang. The Boomerang Offerwall also collects demographic data about users, primarily age and gender...

NEW YORK TIMES — Beginning Thursday, latte addicts who visit Starbucks outlets can get more than just a caffeine fix. They will also be rewarded on Foursquare with a barista badge. Location-based mobile services like Foursquare are at the cutting edge of a transformation in the way offline businesses and their customers interact, by breaking down the barriers between the physical and the virtual...

CNET NEWS — It was apparently one step short of a cattle stampede when low-cost airline JetBlue used its Twitter account to announce that as part of its 10th anniversary celebration it would be giving out about a thousand free round-trip tickets at three undisclosed locations in Manhattan on Wednesday. "One of the things we knew was that people were just going to follow us," JetBlue public relations representative Morgan Johnston told CNET, relating anecdotes about one woman who claimed she sprinted in heels from midtown to the Financial District (one of the giveaway spots), people chasing the JetBlue team in taxis as they left one location to head to the next, entire offices clearing out when they heard that one of the ticket giveaways was nearby, and a cab driver who left his passenger behind in order to get out and claim a ticket. "It was like the Pied Piper of Hamlin." CNET caught up with Johnston, whose team orchestrated the stunt...

MARKETINGPROFS — Unprecedented change brought on by a volatile economy and the rise of new marketing channels is creating opportunities for marketers—and leading the way for widespread adoption of emerging tactics such as social media, rich media, and mobile marketing, according to a survey of online and direct marketers by Unica and Salloway & Associates. Over eight in ten marketers (84%) use or plan to use at least one emerging marketing tactic (social media, rich media, or mobile marketing) in the next year. Among marketers, 47% now use social media for marketing, and 23% plan to use it in the next 12 months...

ZDNET — One of the biggest challenges of social media managers who oversee large consumer or enterprise brands is content manageability. It seems as if a new social network is born every day, and only a few days after it’s introduced to the world a multitude of people push to figure out how businesses can benefit. With many companies taking the be everywhere for everyone approach to social networking, trying to keep it all in sync is a major feat. Calling it lack of manageability might be too simple of a way to put it. Some of the intricate challenges are...

ADVERTISING AGE — I remember as the brand management director for Lucent Technologies we worked hard to maintain a flexible yet consistent brand identity. The work from Landor won just about every creative branding award there was and the brand management team won the APQC Best-in-Class award. In those days, if a group misused the brand we said they "went rogue." We meant they deviated from the standard. I don't think it is an exaggeration to say that corporate branding has gone rogue and the cause is social media. Here's why...