Flying the “Friend”ly Skies:

With more airports providing Wi-Fi, there’s an increase in the use of social media on and off the tarmac. The use of social media in airports does the obvious: allows you to make connections with friends and family before and after takeoff. But, it is also allowing passengers and otherwise strangers to “friend” one another and possibly meet for the first time. Here is an interesting article from the New York Times on how travelers are taking advantage of social media!

Get the Door, It’s Domino’s … and $26 million. Thanks Foursquare!

Domino’s in the UK has seen a 28% profit increase and says it’s all due to their social media ventures. They are active on Facebook with 36,000 friends, but most importantly they have taken full advantage of Foursquare. All of their mayors receive a free pizza and all checkin’s receive a free side dish. This is what I call an incentive and one that proves to be working not only for pizza lovers but the company as well! See our previous blog post on how Domino’s has done a great job on PR and social media.

Astronauts Watch Out, Here Comes the Astdroid:

For all of you space lovers who were crushed when we (the United States) decided to cut back on space exploration, Danny Pier might have a solution for you. His plan is to send an Android smart phone to space, capture the journey and then retrieve the footage when the phone lands back on planet Earth. Read more!

Last week, the New York Time announced it would discontinue its paid subscription service, TimeSelect, following most other newspapers in the country. Sadly traditional media, like newspapers, are suffering declining readership due to the Web and many are struggling to adapt to the changing ways people are getting their news.

By opening up its content, the New York Times is opening the doors to many new readers, which likely will serve the famous paper well. With so many more viewers reading, emailing articles, blogging about the stories of the day, Digging their content and more, their reputation is likley to improve among those who find their news on the Web.

Free content will also give them better search engine visibility and many more potential advertisers and ad dollars thanks to a growing number of unique visitors to their sites. All in all I think it’s a smart move for the Times.

Now, if my very favorite paper, the Wall Street Journal, would just follow suit… They seem to be one of the last hold outs on the paid online subscription service, though a recent Wall Street Journal article stated that Rupert Murdoch is considering a move toward free content. Here’s hoping, so the world can access its insightful articles!