• Social media is a "once-in-a-millennium" game-changer, marketer says
  Social media and viral content are transforming the marketing business, says Jules Hall of The Hallway. Word-of-mouth marketing is timeless, but the social Web greatly increases the effectiveness of WOMM, allowing dizzyingly rapid and far-reaching buzz-marketing campaigns -- even though it means giving up control to a degree that can be dangerous. As Universal McCann CEO Mat Baxter said, "It's a complete reinvention, powered by technology. It's a once-in-a-millennium occurrence. We're the pioneers." The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) (10/28)      

• Is desktop revenue an issue for Facebook?
  Facebook's earnings report last week helped to reassure some investors who fretted that the social network hadn't figured out how to make money from mobile users. Still, there's a broader problem, as the shift to mobile is eating into Facebook's desktop revenues, and it's not yet clear whether marketers' embrace of mobile will offset that decline, Mark Walsh writes. MediaPost Communications/Online Media Daily (10/26)      

• Feds offer online updates on "Frankenstorm"
  Federal officials are using social media to keep people updated on Hurricane Sandy, including tweets by the Federal Emergency Management Agency about the storm's progress. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Weather Service are using Facebook, where it's easier to share satellite images and storm-tracking diagrams. FierceGovernmentIT (10/29), American City Business Journals/San Jose, Calif./Silicon Valley BizBlog (10/29)      

• Brands go social to address online complaints
  Companies are using social media to keep tabs on the negative buzz surrounding their brands, marketers say. Monitoring and responding to disgruntled customers' social chatter is essential to stop negative buzz from spiraling out of control, says Bernhard Warner of Social Media Influence. "People have been complaining about companies forever, but before they did it at the water cooler or at the bar. Now they are doing it online and spreading their complaints to disparate communities," he says. Independent.ie (Ireland) (10/26)      

• Study: Paid media broadens the reach of branded Facebook content
  Among Facebook's top 100 brands, those that use paid advertising reach an audience 5.3 times as large as their nonadvertising counterparts, according to a Facebook/comScore study. Some brands were able to increase the reach of specific items of content by a factor of 100 using paid media, the study found. ClickZ (10/26)      

• 8 keys to making a splash with microblogging
  It's an art to effectively use short status messages on social networks, writes Chris Martin. Restraint and careful targeting are the keys to building up an audience, Martin writes. "If you continue to microblog about superficial topics, people will tune you out," he warns. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Social Media (10/29)      

• Are you seeking the holy grail of social content?
  When it comes to creating content for social networks and other platforms, too many brands settle for mediocrity, writes Joe Pulizzi. Second-rate content might satisfy your existing brand advocates, but it won't win over their friends, or their friends' friends, Pulizzi warns. To boost their brand's reach, companies shouldn't settle for anything less than the "holy grail" -- content that's amazing enough to win over even people who don't yet care about your brand. Content Marketing Institute (10/27)      

• Jogger turns heads as East Coast braces for storm
  Hurricane Sandy is bearing down on the East Coast, but jogger Jimmy Kruyne created a storm of his own when he was spotted wearing a horse mask while out for a run. DCist.com (Washington, D.C.) (10/29)      

Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Social Media readers in the past week.

• 6 terms every Facebook advertiser should understand (Entrepreneur online)

• How smart Facebook page managers build followings (SocialMediaExaminer.com)

• Marketing execs share their secrets on social strategies (Social Media Today)

• Facebook brand engagement has surged in past year, study says (SearchEngineWatch.com)

• A bellyful of trivia about Halloween candy (MentalFloss.com)

• Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.

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