The latest trends for startups, specifically mobile applications, is to attract celebrities with big followings to their platform. So far, it has worked for companies like Instagram, Mobli, Viddy, and Socialcam.

While celebs bring a select audience, depending on how young, old, and rabid those fans are, brands can grab much more attention, since they appeal to a wider set of people. For “products” that entertain us, feed us, and make a true difference in our daily lives, joining social networks is a way to engage their consumers.

Socialcam is on a tear lately, bringing the Brooklyn Nets onto its platform, and announcing a whole slew of new brands who have joined Socialcam to share content with fans. Most notably, Oprah’s television network OWN has joined the site to share previously unreleased content with its viewers. Its first video is a teaser for the network’s summer season.

In addition to OWN, it looks like sports teams are taking a liking to Socialcam as well. Joining the Brooklyn Nets are the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Jets, and Philadelphia 76ers.

If you watch commercials these days, a lot of companies are directing viewers to their Facebook pages. It’s a complete shift towards trying to engage potential customers immediately, rather than send them to a boring website or simply asking for their dollars upfront. People want to interact with who they’re buying from.

It’s not just sports though, as Socialcam now counts these various brands as users: Discovery Shark Week, Meow Mix, Brisk, Sierra Mist, General Electric, Kibbles ‘n Bits, and LIPTON Iced Tea.

We spoke with Socialcam’s CEO Michael Seibel about this trend and here’s what he told us:

TNW: How have the interactions gone between Socialcam and brands? Are they approaching you?

Michael Seibel: Brand interactions have been great. At least 20 brands and agencies have reached out so far this week. But even better, many brands are just setting up accounts and starting to post videos by themselves.

TNW: What types of things are brands hoping to get out of being on Socialcam?

Michael Seibel: Brands like 3 things about Socialcam. First, they see Social Video as a new trend that they want to get in front of. Second, video is their most powerful promotional tool and Socialcam allows them to distribute video to their target audiences. Third, Socialcam is a new platform that is growing very quickly and brands who establish themselves early are getting a ton of followers.

TNW: Are you working on features specifically for brands to leverage your community?

Michael Seibel: We are currently offering two products to brands. The first is membership in our VIP program. That gives them promotion, a vanity URL (socialcam.com/brand), and 24/7 support. The second is the ability to sponsor custom filters and soundtracks. Brands have been very responsive to both of these opportunities.

What does all of this mean? It means that the smartest brands who are already engaging its customers on sites like Twitter and Facebook are now looking for new channels to interact with them. Social channels are in essence “free advertising” and can pay huge dividends for brands who understand the power behind them.

Of course, when handled poorly, be it by not adding new content or responding to fans, this can explode in a brand’s face. While its too soon to tell what companies will use an app like Socialcam for exactly, the community contains quite a few eyeballs.

As we reported last week, Facebook has been tinkering with letting its users create curated lists based on their interests, and today it has officially announced the new feature called Interest Lists.

The feature is extremely similar to Twitter Lists and Google+ Circles, in that you can create a list of people and brands who fit into a category of your choosing. It certainly does seem to be the year of curation, so it’s not surprising to see Facebook launch this.

Here’s how the company describes the feature:

Interest lists can help you turn Facebook into your own personalized newspaper, with special sections—or feeds—for topics that matter to you. You can find traditional news sections like Business, Sports and Style or get much more personalized—like Tech News, NBA Players, and Art Critics.

Will this feature see massive adoption? I’m thinking not so much, but advertisers will sure like it a lot.

Great for advertisers

Getting a user in the mode of “buying” is a difficult proposition. When they’re hanging out on their Facebook Newsfeed, they’re looking for bits of information that interest them, and they’re not really open to advertising. The Newsfeed is like a personal inbox, and nobody pays attention to ads in their email.

However, when people are checking out a special curated list that they’ve taken the extra step of subscribing to, say one with all 32 NFL teams, they’re more open to see advertising based on the content they’re reading. It’s not a mis-mash anymore like the Newsfeed is. During a list-reading experience, advertisers could sell tickets, gear, or anything having to do with what’s being curated.

Facebook is basically letting its users help advertisers advertise to them more efficiently. I say it’s an extremely smart move, but if users don’t use it, then advertisers won’t be all that happy.

When it comes to advertising, it’s all about real-estate. And on any website or app there’s only so much to go around before users start revolting. Ask MySpace about that problem. Facebook needed more real-estate for advertisers, especially since it’s about to become a publicly traded company. This new advertising opportunity captures users in a more engaged state, so it’s a win.

Just another thing to check for users

Lists are just that, lists. It’s another thing to check, another thing that will have a little number next to it as it grows and grows with content. The best usage would be for Facebook users to create their own personalized lists, but it seems like Facebook will be promoting some of its own curated lists as well, like the NFL one.

When it comes to following information in real-time, curation is definitely a nice feature to have. But we’re talking about Facebook here. Facebook is still a destination to keep up with your friends, even though brands have taken to it in droves. Sure, some musicians have millions of likes but lets not kid ourselves, Facebook is all about your friends.

What this list experience does is take you away from the personal experience in which Facebook was intended for. If you were to add three new “inboxes” of information to keep up with, that’s less time you’re focusing on and interacting with your friends. That’s good for Facebook since it can’t make money off of you if you’re just using its site to chat and say happy birthday.

At the end of the day, this feature is something some users will love. Information hounds will love Interest Lists. But it’s not the type of curation that has captured the imagination of users on sites like Pinterest. It’s not a separate experience at all, it’s more of the same with just another name.

Interest Lists are the equivalent of signing up for five more Facebook accounts and calling one of them your “sports account” and another your “fashion account” and so on.

Advertisers are stoked, but users? We’ll see.

Since launching its Pages product for businesses last November, Google+ has tried to get mainstream brands to adopt the platform. Up until recently, the most popular brands on Google+ happened to be owned by the company itself, which wasn’t a very good sign of adoption.

It looks like brands were just waiting to see how things went with Google’s social network, as a recent study by analytics firm Simply Measured shows that some of the world’s biggest brands are now ruling the plus-waves.

The study, which focuses solely on the top brands using pages on Google+, gives us a glimpse into how Google will be able to reel in more advertisers and brands to use its social platform, as the engagement numbers are rather impressive.

The top categories of brands on Google+ still show a slight shift towards geekiness, but beverages, apparel, and restaurants are surging.

Based on how many times a brand has been circled, here are the top companies using Google+:

A deeper dive by Simply Measured shows that the companies who are doing the best on the platform are the ones who are posting interesting and interactive content. The best way to get attention on any public social network is to share interesting things:

The number one brand according to this report is H&M, which is enjoying increased consumer attention since its Super Bowl ad featuring a scantily clad David Beckham. If you visit the brand’s Google+ page, you’ll see that they leverage its visual content extremely well, which makes sense considering H&M is a fashion company:

You can read through Simply Measured’s entire report at your leisure, but what I’ve learned from pouring over this data as well as my own experience on the platform is that the mainstream appeal for Google+ is starting to see an upward turn. This is a moment that brands can still get in on the ground floor with Google+ and become dominating companies on the platform.

We told you way back in November that it was a no-brainer to get your brand on Google+, tell us in the comments how it’s going for you!

What if you could get rewards towards future purchases, just by sharing what you have in your closet already? Zappos founder Nick Swinmurn has launched a new site to do just that. It’s called RNKD, and it wants you to show the world what kind of clothing and accessories you already own.

Even though the site launched last month and is still in beta, RNKD shared some extremely interesting stats with us that show a growing community for the premise. You might think that something like RNKD is just for the ladies, but the company tells us that 46% of users are male. They’re seeing some eye-popping engagement too, with users sharing 26 items each on average.

The idea is pretty brilliant when you think about it, if people share the items that they already have, then the site will known exactly what brands to partner with and what deals to offer to its user base. RNKD says that 2,000 different brands have been uploaded to the site so far.

The most popular brands on the site are Nike, Ralph Lauren, Express, and H&M. With this type of data, RNKD can do some serious damage in the social shopping space.

Show me yours, I’ll show you mine

Just getting deals based on what you have already purchased is interesting enough, but being able to share the contents of your closets with others takes it to another level. Each user gets a profile, and that profile shows all of the items that they have uploaded.

You can search through the items by type, brand, or the store that they bought it from. One neat feature is a quick breakdown of items by category so if you were holiday shopping, you’d be able to see the gaps in your friends wardrobe.

You can upload your items on the site, or use RNKD’s iOS and Android apps.

Reward me!

Here’s where things get interesting on RNKD. The more you share, the more chances you have to win rewards. The rewards or none other than Zappos gift certificates. Makes sense, since RNKD’d creator is the founder. The site sets up fun little categories like “Most Improved” and “Best Watch Collection” and rewards its users with gift certificates to buy more stuff. Pretty genius. You can even get badges for the types of things you share, cementing your place as a top brand maven.

If you’re really into fashion, you can get lost for hours on this site. RNKD has done a really awesome job of making everything clickable and shareable, so you can share something from someone else’s closet on Facebook or Twitter.

We’re told that of the items uploaded, the average user shares 12 different brands & 9 different stores, so I have to imagine that partnerships with these big brands are coming soon. It’s the perfect audience to share deals and exclusives with, and since they’re showing what they have in their closet already, we know that they like to buy.

➤ RNKD