We’re back with our weekly recap of the interesting and inspiring, with a particular eye for what shifts and ideas brands should be tracking, evaluating and acting on. This is a collection of some standout business strategy, brand-building and digital media stories catching our attention.

Discussions Shaping Strategy, Creativity & Innovation 

• Social Media Is Getting Serious. Finally. (on a new paradigm, moving from ad & promotions to Social CRM)
• Social Media Is A Part of the User Experience (moving beyond the ‘share this’, ‘follow us’ approach in site design)
• The Limitations of Social Discovery
• Cultural Standpoints (submissions from VCU Brandcenter Graduates)
• On the Future of Personal Data Tracking
• What’s the Future of the Sharing Economy?
• America’s Most Innovative Neighborhood: 15 Square Miles in New Mexico (Population, 0)
• The Technology in Our Lives, and How to Make It Work Better (advice on making technology work to make our lives easier – and not more complicated)
• The Advertising Agency Business Is Dead (polarizing headline; a point of view on an industry in the midst of redefinition)
• Mobile Payments: A Trillion Dollar Industry, Once Everyone Can Actually Make a Payment (on the need to develop for the masses)

Notable Ideas: New Products, Platforms and Projects 

• Custora: The Startup Helping Fab and Etsy Court Customers (predictive analytics)
• Take My Money, HBO!
• Nike+ Kinect Training for XBOX360
• The Culture of Reddit
• Face.com (Free face recognition API)
• Sean Parker’s Airtime Launches (sharing experiences with people you know and don’t know, through video)
• Silicon Valley As the New Hollywood
• Obama Directs All Federal Agencies to Have An API

Brands, Companies and Entities of Note (some more obvious than others)n 

• On American Express‘ Spend Graph
• JetBlue Develops a Game Show for the Internet Age
• Tide Responds to Onion Article
• Tesco Snack Brand Llama’s to Pen Sun Column
• Audi Case Study: The Mark of the Classic
• GOOD Mag to Be a ‘Reddit for Social Good’ (the shame)

Digital & Social Media News and Resources

• Facebook Launches First Mobile-Only Ad Product
• Facebook Reportedly Developing Technology to ‘Friend’ Kids Under 13
• Taking Flight: #Twitterbird (a new brand identity for Twitter)
• Is Twitter Becoming Anti-Social?
• The Most Magical Event in Twitter History Just Happened
• Pinterest Now En Español
• Social Shopping On the Rise with Open Graph
• Sketching a New Mobile Web