In the tradition of themed ads from Apple, such as the ones for FaceTime that featured grandparents seeing their grandkids for the first time, the company has been whipping up TV ads for the most notable feature on the iPhone 4S, Siri.

The last ad for Siri, which was holiday themed, showed Santa Claus using Siri to help him make deliveries. These latest installments appeal to two very distinct sets of potential users; musicians and travelers.

In the first ad, called “Rock God”, a budding musician uses the device to find a new guitar, play a new song, and contact bandmates via text message. The kid even tells Siri what to call him from now on:

In this ad, called “Road Trip”, a series of vignettes show the GPS capability of the iPhone 4S as travelers look for things to do in their area, as well as find gas when they’ve run out:

Apple does a fantastic job at humanizing its technology, and these new ads continue that tradition. Whether you’re on a bike trying to read a text message or stranded in the middle of nowhere, Apple hopes that its device is the one you turn to.

If you watched the Super Bowl on Sunday you caught a pretty good show. From a football perspective, it was a pretty exciting game in the fourth quarter. The ads during the big game? Not so super if you ask me.

In one of the biggest yearly opportunities to catch a large audience staring at a screen for hours on end, big brands spent an estimated $3.5M each on Super Bowl ads. It’s the perfect time for innovation and interaction, especially using the Internet, Twitter, and Facebook, right? Wrong, big brands spending major money for ads aren’t so sold on using social media just yet.

According to analysis from Altimeter Group, 32% of the eighty seven ads displayed yesterday made no online reference whatsoever:

In what I’ll call “playing it safe”, it appears that most companies who did make reference to a presence on the Internet, chose to use their own URL rather than a hashtag or Facebook URL. Why is this? It has to do with controlling the message, obviously.

If I’m company and I’m spending a lot of money on the biggest television stage in the United States, there’s absolutely no way I’m going to ask millions of people to use a hashtag. There’s just no context to be had there and nothing to be gained. As we’ve seen with a recent McDonalds hashtag gaffe, it might actually cost you more money and brand integrity to defend something gone awry.

I’ve seen hashtags pop up on the screen a lot during television shows, and that’s the context that makes sense for me. If I’m watching a show that I’m really into, there’s a good chance that I’ll tweet something using its hashtag as a reference point and as a way to become a part of a larger conversation. For Super Bowl ads that cost so much money, there’s only one conversation to be had: did it suck or not? That’s not a question these brands want to ask, therefore they kept the social out of the ad.

In fact, the Altimeter Group points out that hashtags were only a part of 7% of the Super Bowl ads yesterday, and that doesn’t surprise me a bit. You can’t have a conversation without context, and I think that brands restraining themselves from using social media hooks and tricks as a way to seem cool is a good thing. These are “display” ads after all, and not interactive ones.

In a comScore study posted today, we are reminded of what we already knew; Facebook is an absolute beast when it comes to cornering people’s time online.

For example, this stat seemed so insane, I thought it was fake at first:

Social networking accounts for nearly 1 in every 5 minutes spent online in October 2011

Social networking is a hobby of 82 percent of the global Internet population, which sits at around 1.2 billion users. Just a reminder, Facebook has over 800 million users. Facebook most definitely owns social networking.

Stats and Thoughts

In October, Facebook reached more than half (55 percent) of the world’s global audience and accounted for 1 in every 7 minutes spent online around the world and 3 in every 4 social networking minutes.

Facebook’s users aren’t just loyal, they’re obsessed. These types of numbers show that the features that social network is building have one goal; to keep you on Facebook, and not let you leave. If you take a look at the most recent changes on the site, such as the Ticker and Timeline, they’re built to keep you digging into someone’s profile and content.

In October, Twitter reached 1 in 10 Internet users worldwide, growing 59 percent in the past year.

Facebook’s game is engagement, while Twitter is surging to touch as many people as possible. It’s safe to say that Twitter will never get anywhere close to the engagement numbers that Facebook has, and it doesn’t want them. With its latest redesign, the site is becoming easier to use, as Facebook is becoming more complicated. Twitter is betting that simplicity will win out, and eyeballs for any amount of time is key. The company actually has a shot to get more eyeballs in 2012 than Facebook if it stays focused and keeps being integrated into every mainstream property possible.

People age 55 and older represented the fastest-growing age segment in global social networking usage, increasing nearly 10 percentage points since July 2010 to 80 percent in October 2011.

Have you noticed that it’s not just your friends and college buddies on Facebook anymore? Mom’s using it, grandma’s using it, cousins, uncles, everyone. This will be an interesting trend to watch, because I think that this particular age group will be the one that gets Facebook to 1 billion users.

Survey says? We’re obsessed. Seriously, and in some cases unhealthily, obsessed with social networking.

Will the obsession turn into dollars?

2011 was the year of data collection. Facebook and Twitter have made its services easier to use so you can share more. The sites know a lot about you based on the things you’ve told them, so 2012 will be the year of capitalizing on it.

Facebook will be placing ads in the News Feed next year, and is hoping to collect your clicks and crank up those ad dollars before it goes public. Twitter is planning similar advertising approaches, hoping to capitalize on your obsessive use of the service, with an ad that fits your likes.

We know that ads are coming, but “will they work?” is the true question. Seeing as Google AdWords have done quite well for the company, they probably will.

Why? Because Google was the first online service that people got obsessed with. “Facebooking” is the next “Googling”, and the money will follow. We’re obsessed with TV, too. Advertising on television isn’t what it used to be though, mainly because of the Internet. What are we doing instead of watching TV? We’re on Facebook.

Get the picture? Obsession = $$$.

If you operate or work for a nonprofit organization, you know that the road to donations to keep you afloat is a bumpy one. Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have made it easier than ever to spread the word about the cause that you work so hard to support.

Twitter specifically has helped pair up celebrities and charities to build a megaphone of social good, giving free advertising to cash-strapped nonprofits who are on the service to get support for cleaner water, those dealing with cancer, and everything else in between.

Up until now, Twitter has helped some of those organizations get attention, although not officially. The company says that it has given over $300,000 worth of pro-bono advertising to 50 organizations to date by way of promoted accounts and tweets.

Twitter is now making this service official, calling it “Ads for Good”.

Here’s what the company had to say on its advertising blog today:

Today we’re expanding our pro-bono ads program – now called Twitter Ads for Good – and unveiling a new fund designated for non-profits in our hometown of San Francisco. By providing grants for San Francisco organizations, we’re extending a hand to the non-profits that work hard to make our city a better place to live.

To apply for a Twitter Ads for Good campaign, complete this contact form and detail how your organization would benefit from one of these grants. For FAQ on these programs, please see here and follow @twittergood for the global highlights.

The company is now accepting applications from properly setup 501c3 organizations, via its Hope140 site.

In addition to pro-bono advertising, Twitter has given 21 lucky organizations an enhanced profile page, which launched last week.

These organizations include @kiva, @jobsforusa, @roomtoread, @globalcitizenyr, @redcross, and @gaffta.

Who said ads were evil? Here’s a way to make advertising more relevant to users, by making them care about what they’re clicking on. That’s donation by action, folks.

It’s always nice to see a platform use its power for social good, and Twitter has been doing it in one way or another since launching. Now it’s official.

There’s no doubt about it, marketing on Facebook is something businesses are doing more and more as the social network grows closer to one billion members. The Facebook ad team has actually done a wonderful job working with engineers at the company to build an easy to use, self-service ad product that makes Google AdWords targeting seem silly and incomplete.

You can target Facebook ads to people of a certain age, location, or area of interest. You can get really focused with your marketing.

This infographic from Flowtown shows survey results the company collected about who is marketing on Facebook. Impressively, 69% of the businesses they spoke with are utilizing Facebook for this very purpose. The infographic also shows that Health Care is the most expensive industry to market on Facebook, and it would cost you upwards of $320,000 to get 300,000 likes on your Facebook page. Wowser.

Click here to see it in its full glory:

If you’re a shopper, this time of year is your time. The adrenaline is rushing, your wallet is full of cash and credit cards, you have coffee in hand ready to stay up the whole night looking for that one great deal.

Why not get an edge by having all of the Black Friday ads right in your pocket? That’s what TGI Black Friday aims to do with its app for iOS.

The app is only useful during this Black Friday holiday shopping season, but so what? It does the job perfectly, showing you all of the deals from every major outlet categorized by type. It’s the perfect app to get an edge on all of those grandmothers looking to grab that Kenmore Side-by-Side Refrigerator out from under you.

Shoppers…start your engines

There are literally thousands of deals every Black Friday, stores are looking to get rid of extra stock, as well as turn a year of sad revenue around in one single day. Why not help them out by mapping out your plan of attack with TGI Black Friday in hand?

You don’t have to sign up for anything, just open the free app and start adding things to your list.

The products are broken down by store and categories, so you can shop by what you need, or what’s near you. The app is actually quite amazing in that it shows you how many deals each store has, so if you want to shop blindly, just pick the store with the most cheap stuff. Once you pick a store, you’re shown the categories of items. All features that you need in preparation of saving every last dime you’ve saved in your piggy bank.

Once you find something that you want, simply add it to your list. The app even has downloadable PDF versions of those pesky store inserts and coupons that fall out of your Dad’s newspaper. So the app actually saves trees. It also tells you when the store opens, so you’re not stuck outside waiting.

Black Friday is basically a holiday in the United States, so why not digitally map out your plan of shopping attack? All you need is this app, and thousands of dollars in disposable income. Just remember, it’s the thought that counts, so don’t break the bank.

➤TGI Black Friday

Today, Google announced a new initiative from its ad team called “Why these ads”. The reason behind the feature, the company says, is to bring transparency to ad targeting. The feature is available now for ads shown within search results, and will be rolling out for ads in Gmail soon.

Advertising is at a crossroads online. With content flowing, companies are trying to find new ways to make ads relevant and attractive to consumers. Google wants to show you a little bit of what’s in its secret sauce.

Here’s what Google had to say about consumers interacting with Google ads:

Our advertising system is designed to show the right ad to the right person at the right time. Because ads should be just as useful as any other information on the web, we try to make them as relevant as possible for you. Over the coming weeks, we’re making improvements to provide greater transparency and choice regarding the ads you see on Google search and Gmail. Soon, you’ll be able to learn more about these ads by clicking the “Why these ads” link next to ads on Google search results and Gmail.

Here’s a video about the two new transparency features from Google:

Along with “Why these ads”, Google now offers an Ads preference manager.

Why these ads

If you wonder why you’re targeted with certain ads, Google will now do its best to tell you why. Of course it has to do with what you search and click on, but showing the “why” is a smart move by Google. If consumers trust the ads, they will be more apt to click and act upon them.

This is what Google had to say specifically about “Why these ads”

“Why these ads” gives you transparency
The perfect search ad answers your query and gets you what you’re looking for quickly. When you click the “Why these ads” link, you’ll find information about why you’re seeing a particular ad and how it’s personalized for you. If you’re searching for a local restaurant while you’re on vacation in Hawaii, you would see ads for restaurants that are nearby, rather than restaurants in your hometown. Or if you’re researching flat-panel televisions, and performing a series of similar searches in quick succession, you could see ads based on the query that you just entered, or based on a few recent and related queries within a single browser session. By considering the language you’re using, your geographic location and various other indications, we’re able to show you the best ads possible. We’ve been showing ads in this way for years as a way to help you quickly find what you’re looking for.

Ads preference manager

Along with showing you why you’re seeing certain ads, you will now have access to an “Ads preferences manager“. The preferences manager lets you decide which ad providers are blocked, and gives you the opportunity to opt-out of personalized advertising altogether. Clearly that’s not something that Google wants, but surfacing it as an option certainly is putting it in the hands of its users.

This type of interaction with advertisements that you see online is the only way that big companies like Google and Facebook can get you interested in them again. Of course Google lets you “+1″ an ad that you find interesting, but it’s unlikely that ads alone are worth sharing. The reasoning behind why you saw a specific ad? Now that’s something to talk about.