While we're here in DC preparing for yet another giant snowstorm, here are some virtual tidbits to keep you warm through the weekend wherever you may be.

Bloomberg '09 Spent Over $2 Million on Digital Ads

The Bloomberg 2009 campaign has become notorious for record spending. Yet, while it probably spent the most ever for a mayoral campaign on digital media - over $2 million - that number represents just a small fraction of the amount spent on television ads, direct mail, and other traditional media buys.

The campaign - resulting in Mike Bloomberg's third New York City Mayoral win - had a digital media strategist on staff, and used a variety of innovative online tactics - even running Google search ads to promote the @mikebloomberg Twitter account. However, despite the campaign's dedication to digital media, only around 3.5 percent of its total ad spend went to the Web, totaling just under $60 million. 

Apple to Developers: No Location-Based Ads For You

Apple has posted a note to iPhone developers that sounds suspiciously like a warning against including location-based advertising in a mobile app.

The specific text reads: “If you build your application with features based on a user’s location, make sure these features provide beneficial information. If your app uses location-based information primarily to enable mobile advertisers to deliver targeted ads based on a user’s location, your app will be returned to you by the App Store Review Team for modification before it can be posted to the App Store.”

Scott Brown Used Google for Field Organizing, Not Just Advertising

Here’s one angle of the Brown campaign that hasn’t gotten much attention: Brown’s folks used free Google online tools to help organize grassroots voter outreach and to collect field data.

Candidates, You Too Can Google Like Scott Brown

The Boston Globe reports on a campaign event that sounds like it's going to put Google's Elections and Issue Advocacy division (did you know Google had that level of specialists?) in every strategist's iPhone. Duing an invitation-only event at Google's Washington office, Sen.-elect Scott Brown's new media director showed fellow Republicans how their winning Massacusetts campaign used Google tools to get Brown's name in front of voters.

How Scott Brown Won Google

Having an opponent who was asleep at the switch didn't hurt, but some of Scott Brown's key campaign aides say they couldn't have pulled off the upset GOP victory in Massachusetts last month without Google.

"The running joke in the campaign is that when you go to [President Obama's] Web site, it says, 'Powered by Hope,'" said Rob Willington, Brown's new media director, at a briefing Wednesday afternoon (hosted at Google's D.C. headquarters, perhaps not surprisingly, though the Brown people said they'd been making similar presentations to conservative think tanks and groups around town). "With how much we used Google, you could say, 'Powered by Google,' for the Brown campaign."

Check out The Foundry's exclusive interview with Rob Willington - In The Greenroom: Scott Brown Strategist Rob Willington

Google Will Take on Apple With Own Mobile Phone

WSJ reports: Google will circumvent the wireless carriers when it begins to sell its own cell phone next year, according to various published reports that say the Internet company will market the device -- dubbed Nexus One -- directly to consumers who would make their own deal with a carrier. The move, Google's latest challenge to Apple, allows the company more flexibility to offer its own services but risks angering the telecoms that now carry smartphones based on its Android software, according to industry observers.

5 Creative Ways to Use Your Twitter Favorites

If you look at most Twitter users’ Favorites, this feature is often completely empty or seldom used. Many people simply don’t know the power of this tiny tool! There are so many creative and useful ways to get mileage out of selecting tweets to favorite (others’ and your own).

Un-Facebook Yourself

Sometimes, social networking is just a bit too social. If you're feeling vulnerable on Facebook, the web's biggest social hangout, you can easily take control over who can see your information.

What Matters Now: Get the Free E-Book

Now, more than ever, we need a different way of thinking, a useful way to focus and the energy to turn the game around. I hope a new ebook I've organized will get you started on that path. It took months, but I think you'll find it worth the effort. (Download here).

The Wall Opens a Bit More: Facebook to Publish User Updates to Twitter This Week

A lot has been said recently about Facebook’s decision to re-write its privacy rulebook to encourage users to be more open about what they share. Privacy implications aside, at least it appears that Facebook is eating its own dogfood. First CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared a bunch of person images, and now comes a big new feature that everyone should appreciate: Posting individual status updates to Twitter.

Top 10 Ways to Get Your Business [or organization] Ready For the Holidays

A few weeks ago, we jump-started the holiday shopping season with Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Like us, you probably browsed the shops and sites for the coolest products and best shopping deals for your holiday purchases. But if you're a business or an advertiser, you probably know that some of the biggest shopping weekends of the year are approaching — and you need to get your business ready for the rush!

The TGIF 'Revolution' is Nothing Without a Marketing Strategy

If you were a first-time visitor from Mars and you happened to drop into a marketing meeting somewhere in the United States, you might assume that marketing people do nothing but talk about "TGIF."

That's Twitter, Google, the internet and Facebook.

There's no question these four revolutionary developments have forever changed the marketing function. Word-of-mouth has now become word of finger.

Where Money Meets New Media:  A Virginia Governor's Race Postmortem

Television is still king. Printed mailers are second in line to the throne. And somewhere, waiting out in the castle courtyard, is the joker that is new media.

That's the lesson from a close reading of the campaign finance reports filed in the race for the Governor's mansion in Virginia, a race which ended with Republican ex-State Attorney General Bob McDonnell trumping Democratic State Senator Creigh Deeds, McDonnell with 59% of the vote to Deeds' 41%.

Social Media Monitoring 101: How to Get Started

You’ve probably heard people talking about social media monitoring. It’s wise to listen to conversations before you participate in them. Social media monitoring allows you to do just that.

But many brand and marketing managers responsible for social media don’t quite understand what social media monitoring is and why it’s important. Here’s a quick primer...

And just for fun -- 

A Mad Magazine Draws 540 Caricatures for an iPhone App...

About the members of congress and Apple rejects it.

Is it fair? You decide.

Apple Rejects iSinglePayer iPhone App For Being 'Politically Charged'

Apple might be talking a big game about how it's revising the App Store approval process with an oversight board and trotting out Phil Schiller to do damage control at opportune moments, but the process itself is still generating inconsistent and maddening results -- like today's rejection of an app advocating for healthcare reform called iSinglePayer, which was rejected for being "politically charged." Yeah, that's insane, especially since the app just consists of healthcare spending information and a GPS-driven lookup tool for local Congress members and how much money they've received in health-sector donations. Say what you want about the political motivations of the app, but that's a fairly benign set of functions, and it's one that's been echoed by political apps on both sides of the aisle since the launch of the App Store. So why this rejection, and why now, when apps with names like "Conservative Talking Points" have been approved? 

A Start-Up's Tale, Tweet by Tweet

When Sean Callahan sent a "tweet" on March 19 announcing plans to launch TweetPhoto Inc., a photo-sharing service for Twitter, he didn't have a company to speak of—just a bare-bones Web page and a plan to best TwitPic Inc., a well-established rival.
The Journal Report

Mr. Callahan worried that the longer he waited, the harder it would be to unseat TwitPic. So while he was wrapping up a business degree in London, Mr. Callahan plunged into designing his photo-sharing platform. He also started using Twitter, a micro-blogging site that enables users to tell the world what they are doing via short messages known as tweets, to connect with potential customers—and erect the company itself.

Study: 80% of Twitter Users are All About Me

Rutgers University Professors Mor Naaman and Jeffrey Boase set out to analyze the content and characteristics of social media activity. They dubbed communications systems like Facebook and Twitter, “social awareness streams,” and then took to examining user behavior.

After dissecting over 3,000 tweets from more than 350 Twitter users’ status updates the professors concluded that 80% of users are “meformers,” or “Me Now” status updaters. 

Winning Online in 2010: Tools, Time and Resources

Online politics may look new, but most of what a campaign does over the internet is really just a reincarnation of some classic political act. For instance, think of a website as the electronic version of a storefront office, while the process of working with bloggers is a lot like old-school print or broadcast media relations.

But compared with traditional political tools, the internet truly excels at maintaining relationships with many people at once. Channels like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and in particular email connect campaigns directly with their donors and volunteers, providing a means to distribute news, messaging points, event invitations and appeals for time and money. With planning and effort, the connection can go both ways, letting a campaign actively tap the social connections and even the creativity of its supporters.

Congressmen Asked Apple about iPhone Exclusivity and the Tablet

A few days ago, we received a unique invite to meet with the Congressional House Republican New Media Caucus at a Silicon Valley round table “to promote dialog between California’s Silicon Valley and House Republicans.”...

...We had the opportunity to pepper Congressmen Bob Latta (OH-05), Rob Wittman (VA-01), and John Culberson (TX-07) with questions about social media, how they’re using it, why they believe it’s important to democracy, and a lot more. Here are some of the most interesting parts, along with some pictures of the event...

Why State-Level Online Politics Really Matters in 2010

Plenty of people are already looking ahead to the outcome of the 2010 elections, in particular what happens to the Democrats' control of Congress. The party of an incumbent President almost always loses seats in Washington in an off-year election, and with the Dems having just enough votes to stop a filibuster in the Senate, Republicans have a powerful incentive to stall Barack Obama's agenda as long as possible: they know full well that these few months are likely the high point of his influence in his (presumably) first term. 

TWEET SUCCESS: Why We Love Twitter's 140 Character Limit

From its very inception, Twitter (Twitter) faced complaints from the peanut gallery about its 140 character posting “limitation.” Over time new services sprung up to address the perceived “short-coming” of the microblogging service, from TwitLonger to Maxitweet to Glide Engage: essentially Twitter with 1,400 characters.

Some folks will probably get some value out of those services, but I’m going to make the argument that Twitter is the unique and special snowflake that it is precisely because of its 140 character “limitation.” If brevity is the soul of wit, we are all facing an unprecedented opportunity to be hilarious all day long. Let’s not squander it!

Apple Announces Tech "Camps" For Kids

This summer, your kid could make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song, put on a show for everyone, and have a blast doing it all. At Apple Camp, kids learn how to do cool stuff on a Mac and discover their hidden talents along the way. Apple Camp occurs at every Apple Retail Store, and each free workshop lasts three hours. Sign up your kid today and get ready for an adventure.

YouTube Partner Channels Can Now Use Google Analytics

Google is giving brands and content publishers another way to track YouTube viewership metrics by letting them view it inside of Google Analytics. Brands can now keep an eye on information that had not previously been available through YouTube's built-in Insight analytics system, including bounce rates, page views, stay time, and whether certain users are coming back for more.

In Case You Missed It: Super Secret YouTube Channel Beta

Every other major Social Media site seems to try to come up with new design and upgrade their features these days.  So after Facebook, Flickr and recently Twitter, I was’t very surprised when I heard that YouTube is doing it too.  If the last YouTube’s update we more on the video watching side, this time it’s the Channel that gets the make-over!

Here’s a recent example of a Republican candidate utilizing the beta format: http://www.YouTube.com/DeanHeller

The YouTube Generation: Online Video Usage up 53% in ’09

Nielsen released some interesting numbers today that show that Web and mobile video watching are experiencing skyrocketing growth. The bottom line: we seem to just love our YouTube and Hulu videos.

This summer, your kid could make a movie, create a photo slideshow, write and record a song, put on a show for everyone, and have a blast doing it all. At Apple Camp, kids learn how to do cool stuff on a Mac and discover their hidden talents along the way. Apple Camp occurs at every Apple Retail Store, and each free workshop lasts three hours. Sign up your kid today and get ready for an adventure.

HOW TO: Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter

Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last month we showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.

Eternal September

Fifteen years ago, someone coined the term, Eternal September. Because each September sees an entire crop of freshman showing up at college, you need to assume that you have to start teaching protocols all over again. Once a year, it's a whole new audience, and they need to learn the ropes.

The Internet has been stuck in September ever since.