We’d like to publicly welcome our newest member of the Social Media Business Council, the U.S. Department of Labor.

They’re joining the likes of Dell, Walmart, Nokia, SAP, GM, Coke, and Procter & Gamble – and more than 90 other fantastic, global brands – as members of the Social Media Business Council collaborating every day on how to create successful, scalable, and sustainable social media programs at large organizations.

If you’re leading social media at a major enterprise, we’d love to have you join our family. Click here to learn more.

3/25 Clorox: Using gaming strategies to grow social media (Private member call) Click here

4/7 BlogWell Cincinnati: Dell, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Duke Energy, General Mills, Graco, and Tyson Foods share case studies on corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal. (Public event) Click here

5/5 BlogWell Seattle: Microsoft, Xerox, Boeing, Chevron, PEMCO, Starbucks, ExOfficio, and Intel share case studies on corporate social media. (Public event) Click here

During the month of February, Molson Canadian’s Facebook fan page grew from 30,000 members to more than 375,000 — largely driven by their involvement in the Vancouver games. Molson’s Director of External Communications, Adam Moffat, said a big factor in the growth was an app they created that enabled fans to personalize their own Team Canada hockey sweater and post it as their profile picture.

The Molson team recently wrapped up their Olympic coverage by presenting a 150-page, hardcover “Rally Book” to Team Canada, filled with wishes of support and encouragement from Molson’s Facebook fans. The Molson crew hand-delivered the book to Hockey Canada President Bob Nicholson and COO Scott Smith just before the gold medal match against Team USA — a game Canada went on to win 3-2 in overtime.

Learn more: YouTube

Disclosure: Molson Coors is a Social Media Business Council member (and an awesome one at that!), but even if they weren’t, we’d write about them anyway.

Peter Horrocks, the new Director of BBC Global News, recently told his journalists to start using social media as a core resource when covering stories. “This isn’t just a kind of fad from someone who’s an enthusiast of technology,” says Horrocks in an internal staff newsletter. “I’m afraid you’re not doing your job if you can’t do those things. It’s not discretionary.”

BBC news editors will also begin using Twitter and RSS readers as essential tools for listening to their audience’s feedback. Horrocks believes that this, in turn, will help his journalists have a better understanding of how their audience relates to the BBC brand.

Learn more: Guardian News

Come to BlogWell: How Big Brands Use Social Media on April 7 in Cincinnati to hear Duke Energy, AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Tyson Foods, Dell, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, and Graco share case studies in corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal — in one afternoon, for just $250.

You’ll get practical, how-to advice on creating great content, getting management buy-in, educating employees, keeping lawyers and regulators happy, simple and ethical disclosure, and engaging fans. You’ll ask questions, discover new ideas, and get answers from people who have been there, done that — all in four hours.

Register and learn more about BlogWell here.

In their BlogWell San Diego case study presentation, “Building Meaningful Customer Engagement,” Starbucks’ Director of Digital Strategy, Alexandra Wheeler and Category Manager, Matthew Guiste, covered their 10 philosophies that guided the construction of their social media program.

Alexandra and Matthew explained how they earned management buy-in, how social fits into a larger Starbucks digital strategy, and how they use Twitter as a monitoring tool.

3/9 Chevron: Social media planning for a crisis (Private member call) Click here

3/11 Toyota: Social media and crisis management (Private member call) Click here

3/25 Clorox: Using gaming strategies to grow social media (Private member call) Click here

4/7 BlogWell Cincinnati: Dell, Procter & Gamble, AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Duke Energy, General Mills, Rogers Communications, and Tyson Foods share case studies on corporate social media. You’ll learn how to get started, get past roadblocks, and make your social media program phenomenal. (Public event) Click here

5/5 BlogWell Seattle: Microsoft, Xerox, Boeing, Chevron, PEMCO, Starbucks, ExOfficio, and Intel share case studies on corporate social media. (Public event) Click here

A Kaiser Permanente pediatrician, Dr. Rahul Parikh, is using Twitter (@parikhmd) to update parents on relevant medical information that may impact their children’s health. Recent updates include links to articles on how to help kids maintain a healthy weight and interviews he hosted with other health care professionals.

San Francisco’s abc7news.com’s story on Dr. Parikh’s use of social media also highlighted a team of Detroit surgeons who used Twitter to educate followers during a kidney surgery.

Learn more: Kaiser Permanente

Disclosure: Kaiser Permanente is a Social Media Business Council member (and an awesome one at that!), but even if they weren’t, we’d write about them anyway.

In what is considered to be the first-ever instant-print coupon campaign on Facebook, Einstein Bros. offered a free bagel to fans as part of their “Bagel and Schmear” campaign. In an interview with Bloomberg, Einstein Bros. Chief Concept Officer, James O’Reilly, said conversion rates with these coupons were more than double their normal redemption rates.

In less than 24 hours, membership to Einsten’s Facebook fan page grew from 4,700 to more than 300,000. Also as part of the campaign, Einstein assigned a person to engage specifically with fans on Facebook.

Learn More: InternetRetailer.com

Our next BlogWell event is coming up April 7 in Cincinnati, hosted by Duke Energy. We’ll feature practical, how-to social media case studies from Dell, Duke Energy, Rogers Communications, General Mills, AT&T, Hilton Worldwide, Tyson Foods, and Procter & Gamble.

BlogWell is one idea-filled afternoon focused on social media at big brands. There are no agencies, no start-ups (though they’re welcome to join and learn along with us!) — just big companies sharing what they’ve learned.

Thanks to our brilliant and talented speakers, our BlogWell series has been an amazing success. We’re thrilled to be bringing it to Cincinnati and would love for you to join us.

Register and learn more: Click here

If you haven’t been to a BlogWell yet, check out the nice things a few smart folks had to say about their experience:

“The discussions were thought-provoking and inspirational.”
— Jim Lein, Oracle

“I came away inspired, energized, and with a nice bundle of new best practices to apply.”
— Ed Nicholson, Tyson Foods

“An amazing amount of useful material was presented in a timely, efficient way.”
— Donna Speigel, Crate and Barrel

“A well organized and well executed conference. Great job!”
— Todd Blecher, Boeing

“One of the best seminars of this type that I’ve seen in a long time.”
— Sandra Buettner, Johnson Controls

“A great forum for social media professionals to collaborate and learn from each others’ lessons and successes.”
— Jennie Ecclestone, General Motors

“The most valuable source for staying current on B2C and B2B social marketing techniques in Fortune 500 companies.”
— Paul Dunay, Avaya

“One of the most organized and informative events all year.”
— Jackie Bona, Google

Register and learn more: Click here

In an effort to foster discussions between customers — both with one another and with Ariba’s subject matter experts — Ariba has launched a new community, Ariba Exchange.

Most community content is accessible without registering, but creating an account allows members to participate in discussions and subscribe to content. Community Manager Justin Fogarty explains the premise behind Ariba Exchange and how to get started in a series of YouTube videos featured on the community homepage.

Learn More: Ariba Exchange

Disclosure: Ariba is a Social Media Business Council member (and an awesome one at that!), but even if they weren’t, we’d write about them anyway.