Summer of Social Media

This year, some of your favorite brands will be using Twitter accounts, Facebook Pages and Foursquare check-ins for creative ways to engage with brand fans online.

Wendy's will have three social media promotions this summer, each centered around its iconic desert Frosty, whose is traveling the U.S. on vacation and leaving clues about his whereabouts on Facebook. Fans can follow clues to collect stamps. Participants who collect these stamps can win $25 gift cards or the grand prize: a trip for two to Hawaii or Alaska.

Starting June 7, Frosty fans can use a Facebook application to help raise money for the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. It's donation by action, so Wendy's will donate 50 cents per tweet, Foursquare check-in or Facebook gift. Also, Frosty fans can share their favorite Frosty moments starting June 21. Wendy's will reward users of the most popular submissions with prizes that include Kindles and iPads.

Facebook users can also try their hand at creating Papa John's next specialty pizza in the Papa's Specialty Pizza Challenge. Submissions will be accepted on Facebook through June 14. Then, Papa John, along with corporate taste testers, will select three finalists. Those pizzas will be sold in stores this August. The finalist with the highest-grossing pizza will win 1 percent of pizza sales, pizza for life and a role in a Papa John's commercial.

The Mountain Dew  DEWmocracy campaign was a year-long effort on the part of Mountain Dew to use their most passionate fans to create their next soda. Everything about these potential new flavors is 100 percent fan-created. The three sodas -- Distortion, White Out and Typhoon -- are on shelves now, and you can vote for your favorite at DEWmocracy.com. The ultimate winner will be announced later this summer.

Elsewhere on the web, Frappucino lovers who also are users of the popular location-sharing game Foursquare are in for a sweet deal at Starbucks until June 28. The person who checks in the most at a venue becomes the mayor of that venue on Foursquare. Mayors at Starbucks nationwide get $1 off their Frappucino beverage.
 

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