Analogous – at least in theory – to Twitter’s Promoted Tweets, Facebook may begin adding “featured stories” into people’s mobile feeds. What does this amount to? Marketing-led posts that could deliver invaluable opportunities to advertisers of every variety.

But Facebook has already denied the welcoming of any “rich media featured stories.”

“We want to clarify that we are not working with any agency to create paid ads on our mobile platform,” a spokesperson for Facebook said Monday.

Still, with its IPO on the horizon, Facebook clearly has a strategy to begin generating marketing dollars out of its 425-million active mobile user base.

What will the rumored mobile ad platform look like? For now, only hazzy comparrisons can be made. But by early March, Facebook’s “featured stories” may go live. And in the process, they may change the landscape of mobile marketing dramatically.

What do you think Facebook is planning? Please weigh in with a thought or comment below.

As the New York Giants mounted a close come-from-behind victory against the New England Patriots 21-17, Twitter saw enormous activity in the game’s final minutes.

According to revelations directly from the microblogging giant, Twitter was spitting out approximately 12,000 tweets per second during the final three minutes of the game.

A close second in terms of Twitter activity came during Madonna’s halftime performance, which drew about 10,000 tweets per second with an average of 8,000 tweets per seconds for a solid five-minute period.

From the Royal Wedding last year to the death of Steve Jobs, yesterday’s conclusion to Super Bowl XLVI generated more tweets than any other event in modern sports and entertainment history.

What was your Twitter experience during the Super Bowl?

“As we continue to grow internationally, we will enter countries that have different ideas about the contours of freedom of expression,” Twitter announced on its official blog. “Some differ so much from our ideas that we will not be able to exist there. Others are similar but, for historical or cultural reasons, restrict certain types of content, such as France or Germany, which ban pro-Nazi content.”

“Until now,” the post adds, “the only way we could take account of those countries’ limits was to remove content globally. Starting today, we give ourselves the ability to reactively withhold content from users in a specific country.”

For now, Twitter says the content censorship is yet to go into effect.

We haven’t yet used this ability, but if and when we are required to withhold a Tweet in a specific country, we will attempt to let the user know, and we will clearly mark when the content has been withheld.

Do you believe Twitter is taking an appropriate action or has the social media platform overstepped its boundaries to restrict the free-flow of communication, regardless of how insensitive or incendiary it may be at times?

The addition of the White House to Google’s social network follows President Obama’s decision to join Google + just two short months ago.

The page promises visitors “news from the blog, behind-the-scenes photos and videos, plus chances to engage with administration officials.”

On our Google+ page, we’ll host regular White House Hangouts with administration officials on topics ranging from the economy to technology. Some Google+ users will be invited to join the Hangout with the White House and have a conversation with policy experts.

The Obama Administration, however, is no stranger to social media. The White House’s Facebook page, for example, has well over 1 million fans while President Obama personally has 24.6 million fans on Facebook.

For the time being, the White House is asking for public input regarding what the White House should do with its new Google + page.

Any suggestions on your part?

According to published chatter Friday, the team at Facebook is attempting to convince the people at Vevo — the hugely popular video streaming service and YouTube staple – to bring their red-hot video platform to the social networking giant.

As of this writing, it’s assumed but not confirmed that Facebook is looking for an exclusive relationship with Vevo.

For Facebook, the move would not only be a bold one, but a fast one, as the social network only partnered with Vevo to integrate it’s platform last September.

“Here’s the most compelling thing a Vevo deal could offer Facebook,” speculates Greg Sandoval of CNET, “CEO Mark Zuckerberg could offer free-music listening in the form of music videos–just like YouTube does now–to the company’s users. That would certainly help Facebook keep users on the site longer, something the company is determined to do.”

With some 43 million dedicated users, Vevo could definitely make Facebook even more formidable in the social-entertainment realm than it already is.

The only question is: Will Vevo go for it?

What do you think will come of Facebook’s rumored efforts?

The challenge for Twitter? Can it really predict the outcome of tonight’s caucuses – at least to a more accurate degree than major network news polls?

To find out, the folks at Mashable have teamed up with Global Point Research.

According to the Washington Post, “Globalpoint surveyed Twitter mentions of each of the candidates that also included mentions of Iowa, the #iacaucus and other Iowa-related terms from Dec. 24-29.”

So far, the Twitter mood as measured by its users is largely showing that which major news agencies are reporting – tonight’s contest is primarily between Texas Congressman Ron Paul and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

But Twitter suggests that a “better-than-expected showing” for Rick Santorum and Rick Perry could manifest Tuesday – something the national media organizations aren’t presently acknowledging to the same degree.

Will the Twitter experiment prove just how accurate social media can be at predicting the mood and voting intentions of voters?

I guess we’ll see before the night is finished.

In the big picture, we all know social media can influence the outcome of an election, but do you think it can predict a winner better than traditional polls and surveys?

New data published from Benedict Evans for Enders Analysis shows that the number monthly active users of Facebook’s mobile apps now exceeds 300 million. The driving force behind the surge, according to the report, is the expansion of iOS and Android app usage.

All told, approximately 40% of Facebook’s 800 million active users are now mobile.

As Sarah Perez of Tech Crunch observed on Thursday: “At the time that Facebook announced 350 million mobile users, there were 250 million mobile app users, he says. That means that over the past few months, Facebook has seen another 50 million+ become active app users. Impressive.”

What remains a mystery, however, is just how many Facebook users are exclusive to mobile access. That is, how many users does Facebook have who never access the desktop site? For now, it isn’t possible to deduce the size of that user-group based on information currently available in the pubic domain. But Evans estimates that number could be equally as impressive.

On Wednesday it was announced that China’s leading mobile ad management platform, Guohe Ad, is working with Starbucks to place highly functional HTML5 ads in premium mobile apps to create awareness for a “massive Starbucks Christmas promotion.”

This month, Starbucks has been rewarding customers with a bigger size of drink for their social check-ins at any of the over 200 Starbucks stores across Shanghai, Jiansu and Zhejing provinces.

“We are thrilled to team up with Starbucks,” said Neo Zhang, co-founder of Guohe Ad. “Guohe selected a few high quality mobile apps for this ad campaign and the feedback is very encouraging. We will continue to explore how we can better serve both developers and advertisers.”

“It is the first time for Starbucks to tap mobile advertising in China and it is really an impressive campaign,” said Lu Huang, Marketing Director and President of Starbucks Coffee Shanghai. “The ad targeting and integration of social media efficiently helped Starbucks to convert mobile users into our real customers, it also enabled Starbucks to celebrate Christmas with customers in the online and offline world, and communicate the idea of Starbucks fourth place experiences.”

“An idea being considered is putting Facebook’s Sponsored Stories ads, which feature friends’ interactions with brands, within the mobile News Feed,” said two sources close to the company.

Facebook, of course, wouldn’t be breaking the mobile mold with this sort of platform. Instead, it would be “playing catch-up” in terms of mobile advertising.

Google, Apple, and Millennial Media are presently light years ahead of Facebook as a mobile advertising platform, simply because those giants offer options and services. For Facebook, this move would represent an entirely new enterprise.

Facebook’s potential advantage is that by gathering so much information about a person’s interests and associates, it can help advertisers target potential customers more directly than mobile Web browsers or applications.

Facebook, which currently has 800 million users, expects to reach 1 billion users primarily on the strength of user engagement from mobile devices, particularly in parts of the world where personal computers and other connected devices aren’t as readily accessible.

To rank mobile apps by active reach, that is, by the percentage of Android owners who used the app within the past 30 days, Nielsen analyzed usage data from its proprietary device meters on the smartphones of the thousands of consumer panelists who agreed to be part of Nielsen’s ongoing Smartphone Analytics research.

Nielsen found that Facebook’s popular app is the most active among Android owners in the age range of 18-24 and 25-34, “who both hover at around an 80 percent active reach.”

Not surprisingly, Google’s YouTube app gets heavy usage from Android smartphone owners 18 -24. Nielsen says 64 percent have used it in the past 30 days, compared to 56 percent and 51 percent of 25-34 and 35-44 year olds.

A preference for media apps with a social dimension (e.g. Words with Friends) among the 18-24 set is also reinforced by their sizable usage of music and video apps (e.g. Pandora) compared to older demographics.

In addition to using their smartphone apps for social activities and mobile gaming, the 35-44 segment demonstrates a greater inclination to shop using the Amazon AppStore, as 24 percent of them used the app in the last 30 days, while only 14 percent of those 18-24 did the same, Nielsen says.

To read the full report, click here.