Dunkin Donuts has jumped on the Twitter bandwagon. The chain that “America runs on” started running its mouth on the social networking site on October 24 and now has 1281 followers.

So far, “tweets” concern updates from the “DD Mothership,” responses to followers’ questions, the Dunkin take on the news (i.e. “What election? Results are already in: DD beat SBUX.”) and a picture of the day.

Dunkin Donuts executives say special offers will be posted to the feed occasionally, but that the main purpose of joining Twitter was to give DD fans some recognition and allow them to interact more with the brand.

As Dunkin continues its aggressive campaign against Starbucks, Twittering should prove a boon to the brand. Starbucks, with its house music and cafe feel, has long been establishing itself as a lifestyle choice for fans. Dunkin, on the other hand, makes a good cup of coffee, but is not the sort of place you go for a personal connection. Showing that it has a human side (albeit one that calls itself Dunkin Dave and hides behind a coffee cup icon) should help consumers feel a little better connected with the DD experience.

Follow the company’s Twitter feed here.

I’ve been endlessly fascinated by the sheer variety of tools and technologies both the McCain and Obama campaigns have used to tap voters, from e-mail and social media to mobile, database techniques and those dreaded “robocalls.” Today’s Wall Street Journal explored the candidates’ ambitious internet strategies.

Even outside political groups such as the left-leaning Moveon.org has taken election pavement-pounding to the next level. Their nifty video site, cnnbcvideo.com, inserts any name selected by the viewer into a fake newscast from November 7, 2008, three days after a US presidential election won by Republican John McCain. Sure, it’s a shameless plug to get me to the polls, but I laughed out loud.

DunderMifflinInfinity.com, NBC’s social networking site for its sitcom “The Office,” seems to be paying off for the broadcaster.

Members of Dunder Mifflin Infinity have organized 26 viewing parties across the country for tomorrow’s season premier of “The Office,” rallying the troops in Rochester, N.Y.; Philadelphia; Cheshire, Conn.; Washington; Baltimore; Gainesville, Fla.; Charlotte, N.C.; Chicago; Germantown, Ohio; Elk River, Minn.; Indianola, Iowa; Ames, Iowa; La Crosse, Wis.; Fort Collins, Col.; Las Vegas; and Santa Barbara, Calif.

I went on the site, and while it could use a bit of spiffing up (which it promises is coming soon), it’s definitely got a lot going for it: The concept is kept to (all visitors are referred to as “employees” and receive “memos” on upcoming events). There are a lot of opportunities to participate and earn “schrute bucks” — an ill-fated concept from one Office episode — which can be used to decorate virtual desks, buy video clips and even “get promoted” on the site. Perhaps most importantly, it taps into the rabid fanhood of some of the show’s best viewers. Superfans can actually apply to be “regional managers” for Dunder Mifflin Infinity, nabbing the power to organize branches, relay information, moderate their branch’s forum and other interactive tasks.

In all, it’s a fun site with a lot of inside references to keep fans interested and happy, and if it can pull in some awesome season premier ratings for one of my favorite shows, well, more power to them. I think those guys deserve some schrute bucks.

An interesting sidenote from the Folio Show keynote this morning:

When speaker Jim Louderback asked the crowd how many of their magazines had a presence on Facebook, Twitter and/or MySpace, only a smattering of hands in the packed ballroom went up. At first, I was shocked: “How can they not be on Facebook?” I wondered. “Don’t they know that you can’t exist without being on Facebook?”

And then I realized that DMNews does not have a Facebook page or group, or, if it does have one, I have not been invited to join. Now I’m wondering if there’s a good reason for that.

Are we too niche-y? Not according to Louderback, who noted in his talk that new online media can actually help publishers reach super-targeted audiences. Is our audience not really a good fit for Facebook? I don’t know; a few of you have friended me, but not many — though maybe that’s a personal thing. Is it that our team may not feel comfortable tying their personal profiles to a job-related Facebook group?

Comment, e-mail or FB message me, and let me know if this is something we’re lacking. If I get enough positive feedback on it, I will look into the official DMNews Facebook launch.

It feels like a seismic shift in the world of Internet searching — how could any topic beat porn, the longtime champ? But according to Reuters, Hitwise General Manager of Global Research Bill Tancer says porn has been dethroned. In his new book, “Click: What Millions of People are Doing Online and Why it Matters,” he says social networking sites have surpassed pornography in terms of what consumers search for. Tancer told Reuters that he conducted his research by analyzing 10 million consumers’ Web search habits. He said searching for porn had dropped to about 10% of Web searches from 20% a decade ago, while the top searches are for social networking sites.

While there’s a lot of coverage of Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch acquisition, I found myself pondering the impact of another merger this morning. Electronic shop and direct marketer Best Buy agreed to purchase music sharing site Napster today.

The investment not only shows the promise of digital music, but also the power of a good list. Napster’s subscribers are known music lovers and the company has already invested heavily in new music distribution platforms. Reporter Mary Hurn covered the trends surrounding Web 2.0 music marketing for us last month.

Given Best Buy’s history with successful direct marketing tactics, I’m looking forward to watching how the retailer might leverage new names.

Ohhhh… Facebook. When will you get your online marketing right?

Staff writer Rachel Beckman blasts the social networking site in a column entitled “Facebook Ads Target You Where It Hurts” in the Washington Post today.

“Every time I logged in to my home page, Facebook’s ads screamed at me with all the subtlety of a drill sergeant: ‘MUFFIN TOP.’ This particular ad had a picture of someone with said affliction,” Beckman writes.  (A muffin top is what happens when a woman wears too-tight jeans and her flesh overhangs her waistband.)

Beckman, as any woman logging onto her Facebook page, obviously did not appreciate being told she was fat. The offending ad has since been removed, although it seems unlikely that Facebook has learned its lesson, Beckman reports.

After changing her status from single to married, Beckman says she started getting ads for fertility specialists.

“Thanks, Facebook, for calling me barren,” she writes.

Watch out Epicurious, The Better Homes and Gardens Web site –BHG.com–has launched a Food & Recipes channel. The new channel includes more than 12,000 recipes from the brand and from the user generated community. Members can upload recipes, photos and videos and organize their favorite recipes in “My Recipe Box” to save for when they are ready to cook dinner. Worried that user generated recipes won’t add up to fine cuisine? Not a problem, the Better Homes and Gardens kitchen test cooks all recipes on the site!

www.bhg.com

The Netroots Nation 2008 convention is being held July 17 to 20 in Austin, TX.

Netroots Nation is a three-year old progressive political organization that uses blogs and other digital media to encourage public debate and political activism.

House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Vermont ex-governor Howard Dean and congresswoman Donna Edwards (D-MD) are just a few of the national and international experts that will be speaking at the event.

The convention will be using LocaModa’s Wiffiti application to enable simultaneous Web, mobile and in-location conversation at the event. Wiffiti will be running on large projection screens in the convention center and all messages sent by attendees will be posted in real-time on the Netroots Nation Web site and any linked blogs.

-Chantal Todé

As an early adopter of the iPhone (my lovely wife gave me one for Christmas last year) I am slightly jealous of all the folks zipping around on their new, faster 3G models. However, my jealousy is tempered by the new iPhone apps, which work even on my now outdated model.

I wrote about widgets a few weeks back, and most of the apps are not too dissimilar from widgets — both are small applications with streamlined function.

I’m very interested in seeing how marketers leverage this new development. The free app Twitterrific integrates advertisements into the Twitter stream using the Deck Network. Will Facebook or the New York Times integrate ads into their free applications? Or, will third parties release portals that trade increased functionality for ad placement? There’s also the chance for brands to create promotional applications that can be dynamically updated with new deals, as with widgets.

Another interesting development is the series of e-books available for download. These are mostly older books in the public domain. Though it is unlikely that this will compete too readily with the Amazon Kindle, which has many more (and recent) books available to read, it does convert the iPhone into another portal for the e-book channel — and one wonders if the Kindle itself may add communication capability in the future.