• Social media gurus FreshNetworks look at the rise of Flash Mobs to celebrate the life and music of MJ. Some great YouTube clips on there.
• Times Online highlights the power of Twitter for real-time news (Every article like this must make Google cringe).
• Twitter and Facebook had massive usage increases as the news spread, the Tech Blog at the LA Times looks at the numbers.
• The LA Times looks back at how gossip website TMZ stole the limelight from TV news channels all over the world.
• TechCrunch reports that the web as a whole struggled to deliver information as everyone rushed online to get the news.

Unfortunately my experience of the event was a very distant one, but I caught occasional tweets from various people attending The Future of Digital Marketing event organised by the excellent Econsultancy. There were some real gems of wisdom in there, below I’ve picked out the 10 best:

1. Social media is about engagement. Use to engage, not direct sales (via @econsultancy)
2. Twitter and its like will be a greater source of consumer traffic than paid search by 2012 (via @tanyagoodin)
   
3. Twitter’s not going to be around forever, Twitter shows the limits of current technology (via @econsultancy)
   
4. Telling me my own name after asking me what it is does not count as personalisation (via @econsultancy)
5. Google sending Adwords vouchers because they’re scared of social networks pulling eyes away from search (via @aizlewood)
6. Social networks represent the most significant consumer marketing opportunity since Google (via @tanyagoodin)
7. Social media is the result of social change, not a technology revolution (via @econsultancy)
8. 65% of users say online compliments the shopping they do in-store…(via @ZiaZ)
9. Twitter is about brand exposure, sharing content, engagement, not SEO, or link building (via @econsultancy)
10. Retailers looking to integrate online & store: don’t lose customers because they don’t want to buy online (via @econsultancy)

Only one blog summary is online so far, but I’ll add more links as more appear:

• Katie Morwenna – FODM
• Visible Banking

There was even some interesting digital marketing intelligence shared:

• BBC have 110 newsletters delivering 360m emails each year (30 m per month) (via @juliansambles)
• Approximate Twitter numbers: 6m users, $250M valuation, and yes, u can make money (Dell – $3m to date)
• 98% of high net worth individuals are buying online. 35% of Britons are spending more online. (via @econsultancy)

So in my time of I need I turned to the ever-reliable Google for the latest information and it was after a number of searches that the weakness of Google for breaking news was exposed. Saving the day came Twitter! Yes there was alot of noise on there from people, like me, despairing over the lack of information available, but eventually the O2 and Carphone Warehouse twitter streams started to post information. O2 broke first with estimated pricing, but then around 9pm left a message saying they were finished for the day. Carphone Warehouse then picked up and exceeded O2′s early strong position with Twitter user ‘@guyatcarphone‘ posting useful links and responding to peoples enquiries.

Around 11pm the retailers websites kicked into life with the bare essential information, tariffs appeared on O2′s site, then Carphone Warehouse again outdid them with a simple, but effective iPhone 3G S pre-registration system.

All in all, an interesting launch to follow online and Carphone Warehouse clearly went the extra mile in providing the personal touch for the UK early adopters amongst us.

• Australian e-mail marketeers Campaign Monitor have a released a birds-eye view of the e-mail client popularity and usage over time. This is priceless for any e-mail marketers out there.
• It used to be ‘If you build it, they will come’ but times have changed, social media guru Chris Brogan contributes an an excellent PDF download titled – Trust Economies: Investigation into the New ROI of the Web
• For anyone using or considering using Twitter as a commercial communication channel ‘50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business‘ and the ‘14 Types of Twitter Personalities‘ are good insights.
• Mashable reviews a nice online way of creating instant Twitter Communities with Tweetizen.
• Brendan Regan looks at homepages for a living (nice work!), he’s blogged about a strong homepage design he recently found whilst ‘working’.
• The final article is a great introduction to developing an Optimisation Culture into the business you work in.
  

Update: This has just been updated to version 1.1 and I also wanted to add a link to Whomwah.com, the plug-in creators website.