Top Social Media-Inspired Halloween Costumes for 2010

It’s beginning to look at lot like. . . Halloween! In 2009, we looked at the top costumes inspired by YouTube videos. This year, we are expanding our scope and recommending the top five social media-inspired costumes. Let us know if you dare to dress up like any of these digital characters – or if you have others to add to the list.

Old Spice Guy: One of the most talked about social media campaigns this year was certainly the Old Spice Guy who created unique videos in response to Twitter @-replies. To achieve this look, fellas, grab a towel and, well, that’s it. Now you are the best smelling man in the world for Halloween.

Thanks for Coming to Celebrate My Birthday! You Can Leave a Check at the Door.

As a child, my favorite birthday party ever was when I turned eight. My mom willingly packed 10 screaming kids into her Ford Windstar and took us to Magic Castle, a renaissance-themed recreational facility in Ohio with trampolines, batting cages, a climbing wall, video games and unlimited pizza; it was an eight-year-old’s paradise.

As an adult, I prefer low-key birthday celebrations, usually with a small group of friends going out for dinner. I tend to follow the philosophy that says it’s the people you are with, not where you are the counts (yes, I think that is a Dave Matthews Band lyric).  So when I read this article about Nick Cannon’s birthday plans, I found it hard to relate.

The New York Post reports, “Nick Cannon is looking to make a killing on his 30th birthday — reps for Mariah Carey‘s husband have sent out a mass e-mail looking for corporate sponsors to pay $25,000 for three tweets from next month’s bicoastal bash.”

Is 911 on Twitter?

As my good friend Nicole of Get NYC’d has recently pointed out, New Yorkers are full of irrational fears. One of mine, which likely stems from watching an unhealthy amount of Law and Order: SVU, is a home invasion. However, I can say that if – god forbid – I am ever in the situation, my first instinct will not be reaching for my phone to tell the Twitterverse.

Paris Hilton disagrees.

The celebrity gossip train was in full force this morning as reports of a burglar with “two big knives” found his way into Paris’s California home. Fortunately, we don’t have to wait for TMZ to break the details, as the celebutante has been sharing her experience via Twitter.

Maybe the accused will live tweet his sentencing. I’ll keep you all posted. . .

News Flash: Gaga Dethrowns Britney

Lady Gaga topped Britney Spears for the top spot on Twitter after earning 5,743,505 followers while Spears dropped to 5,704,360.

New MTV Twitter Jockey Selected

Last night, MTV announced the winner of the search for the first ever Twitter Jockey. Gabi Gregg is a 23-year-old fashion blogger from Detroit who took the reigns of the Twitter handle @mtvtj this morning. She has over 12,000 followers and has been in a state of near-constant tweeting ever since she was crowned.

Let’s see if she takes the time to tell us how she plans on spending her $100,000 salary!

“He Went to Twitter”

If the one day every girls dreams about most is her wedding day, then I think it’s safe to say that the proposal is the second most important experience we wait for (and after spending this past weekend at a bachelorette party watching the Martha Stewart Weddings DVD and reading 100+ bridal magazines, I can say this with complete confidence). However, I don’t think any girl would ever dream of having the Old Spice man pop the question on behalf of their future betrothed.

According to this Mashable article, the groom-to-be approached the Old Spice Twitter account and asked if they would help him propose to his girlfriend. Shortly after the request came through, Old Spice threw together this quick video and retweeted the guy. His response: “SHE SAID YES!”

@KingJames

We are both in our mid-twenties and both from Ohio. And today, Lebron James and I have one more thing in common: Twitter.

OK, so those may be the only three qualities we share, but today’s revelation has me excited.

Lebron created a Twitter account this morning (@kingjames) and within a handful of hours he has accumulated nearly 90,000 followers and counting.

An à la Mode Afternoon

Hump Day is usually one of the longest days of the work week. Yesterday, however, was pleasantly interrupted by two guys, a truck and a case of ice cream.

If you live or work in New York, you may be privy to the Ben & Jerry’s NY Scoop Truck which is tour the city all summer promoting the brand’s latest frozen concoction: New York Super Fudge Chunk. While the truck itself is a sight to see, the real story behind the mobile tour is its social media program.

Active Twitter, Flickr and FourSquare accounts are alerting Manhattanites of the truck’s location, and monitoring requests for specific ice cream party location.

Forget “Tweet”

The editors have spoken. Phil Corbett, standards editor at The New York Times, distributed a memo among its staff stating that said “Tweet” can no longer be used as a verb. Because “tweet” has not yet been formally introduced into the English language via a printed dictionary or encyclopedia, The New York Times staff must uphold the sanctity of the written word and completely ignore colloquial pop culture speech.

Corbett states, “Except for special effect, we try to avoid colloquialisms, neologisms and jargon. And “tweet” — as a noun or a verb, referring to messages on Twitter — is all three. Yet it has appeared 18 times in articles in the past month, in a range of sections.”

Acceptable alternatives to this now taboo term include “use Twitter, post to or on Twitter, write on Twitter, a Twitter message, or a Twitter update.”

Blago’s Latest Folly

After being fired twice in the last year-and-a-half – including once by The Donald – former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojavich is making press again. This time, it’s for a social media campaign aimed to repair the reputation of the infamous politician-turned-reality-TV-personality.

Shortly after his corruption trial began in Chicago last week, Blagojavich launched a Twitter account as a means of rallying support and sharing his side of the story. While his comments have been sporadic over the past week, his agenda is clear based on some of the most recent messages: