The following post is part of the  Mindjumpers Network  series and written by our Community Manager, Sara Hansson. Mindjumpers Network is a global network of local country community managers enabling international companies to execute and maintain brand communities in a structured, quality assured and cost effective way across markets with the aim of creating effect and value. Throughout most social media networks, content is king. But content without context is just messages without any bond to your long-term brand strategy. The value of contextual marketing. challenge for global brands. MORE >>

photo credit: Instagram user @yo_randyjackson. Thanksgiving set a new record for Instagram, with users of the mobile app sharing photos at a rate of 226 per second at the peak of the holiday. whopping 10 million photos were shared on the platform, and for several hours users were posting more than 200 photos per second “that mentioned Thanksgiving-themed words in their captions.” ” It was Instagram’s busiest day ever, and saw double the number of shared photos from the day before, according to Instagram’s blog. Were you sharing your Thanksgiving via social media? MORE >>

Stay Akamai: Employee Policy and Social Media – A Change. Social media is changing employee policy and customer service and not just because there are now new platforms for customer service. One of the more disruptive effects of social media has been the head-on collision at  intersections of business, consumers and employees. In today’s world, everyone is a publisher. And websites like GlassDoor.com are making it easier and easier for people to find out the inside scoop. There’s that head-on collision again! Your customers are publishers. Your  employees are publishers. MORE >>

Spending on paid social media advertising will reach $4.6 billion in 2012 and is expected to double over the next 4 years, reaching $9.2 billion by 2016, according to a new report from BIA/Kelsey. For the first time, the report broke out spending on native social advertising vs. display social advertising ( Adweek ). Native ads running on social media sites (ex. Sponsored Stories on Facebook, Promoted Tweets on Twitter) will total $1.53 billion this year, while growing to $3.85 billion in 2016. billion in 2016. Local social media advertising in the U.S. billion in 2012 to $3 billion in 2016. MORE >>

Take a look at the impact (or lack thereof) social media has on Cyber Monday in today’s must-reads. Cyber Monday: Facebook Adds Social Gifting Service. By Nick Trenchard Facebook is gearing up for the holiday season and expanding its roster of online retailers to help the social media giant transition into the world of e-commerce. Social networks fail Cyber Monday test. By Erik Sharman Signs suggest that it could be a long time before social networks play a major role in e-commerce. Black Friday, Cyber Monday and now #GivingTuesday. Doing Cyber Monday shopping? ways social media can help. MORE >>